Does X mark the spot? Oracle has unveiled a flexible new platform called Application Integration Architecture (AIA) that may be the answer to the prayers of companies suffering the rigidity of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. "Through the AIA framework, the functionality of Oracle's vast application portfolio -- Oracle E-Business, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JD Edwards -- can be recombined and tailored t Does X mark the spot? Oracle has unveiled a flexible new platform called Application Integration Architecture (AIA) that may be the answer to the prayers of companies suffering the rigidity of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. “Through the AIA framework, the functionality of Oracle’s vast application portfolio — Oracle E-Business, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JD Edwards — can be recombined and tailored to enterprise needs, reports InfoWorld Executive Editor at Large Eric Knorr. Put virtualization to the test: Trying to get a handle on just how well your virtualization project is faring? Then you might want to check out VMWare’s virtualization benchmark tool, VMmark, which has just gone public, as reported by David Marshall. The release “has undergone some key changes since that original specification was developed in order to simplify benchmark setup and execution,” he notes, including the distribution of virtual appliances for Linux-based workloads. SCA gets some love: On the SOA front, Dave Linthicum reports that the Rogue Wave Software has released the first product to directly support the Service Component Architecture (SCA) standard. “My take on SCA is that the specification seems to be blurry in many respects, however it is maturing rapidly and has evolved into something very interesting and something we should track,” Dave writes. Technology Industry