Oracle previewed a number of planned enhancements, including better support for development and deployment of rich enterprise applications, for its Fusion Middleware family.

Many of these enhancements are designed to provide a unified design and development experience based on new open standards for languages including Java, SOA, AJAX and growing web 2.0 languages.

"As SOA, Web 2.0 and Rich Enterprise Applications continue to evolve in sophistication, Oracle is committed to helping insulate developers and customers from the complexity and pitfalls that accompany the vast combination of potential underlying technologies," said Thomas Kurian, senior vice president, Oracle Server Technologies.

“Through its standards-based, hot-pluggable foundation, the latest preview of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g further demonstrates this commitment."

Other improvements relate to performance and manageability in the suite, and easier, tighter integration with other, already existing products in the Oracle stable. The firm also made a number of announcements concerning its commitment to the developer community, pledging its ongoing support for the Eclipse Foundation, and Open Source communities.

The Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, which was also detailed, supports development with Java Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Java Server Faces, Web services, XML and Database development.