Oracle Business Intelligence

MaineIT Fusion Middleware Oracle Business Intelligence, OBIEE Managed Service

FY2022 & FY2023 Summary

Overview

Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) is a unique platform that enables customers to uncover new insights and make faster, more informed business decisions by offering agile visual analytics and self-service discovery together with best-in-class enterprise analytics. Instant mobile and highly interactive dashboards, powerful operational reporting, just-in-time alerts, content and metadata search, strategy management, native access to Big Data sources, sophisticated in-memory computing, and streamlined systems management combine to make Oracle BI a comprehensive solution that reduces the total cost of ownership and increases return on investment for the entire organization.

Included

• One virtual server with three virtual CPUs and 32 GB of memory.
• Enterprise monitoring, including monitoring the health of the system.
• Administration of the OBIEE WebLogic hosting software and platform.
• Collection of managed server logs for isolated applications.
• Quarterly patches for OBIEE, WebLogic, JDK, and the operating system to enhance features, functionality, and reduce security vulnerabilities when/where available.
• Assistance with the monitoring and troubleshooting of load tests.
• Enterprise Backups – Backups occur each night at 10:00PM with the following Standard Retention utilizing the Azure Gov Cloud:
  
  • Daily backups are taken at 10:00PM, stored in the SOM data centers, and retained for 15 days.
  • Weekly backups are taken every Friday at 10:00PM, stored in the SOM data centers and Azure Gov Cloud Tenant, and retained for 35 days.
  • Monthly backups are taken the first Friday of each month at 10:00PM, stored in the SOM Azure Gov Cloud, and retained for 365 days.

• All hardware purchase and maintenance costs.
• All software licensing and maintenance costs.
• Server housing costs (power, backup generator, UPS, network connection, operational monitoring, etc.).
• Customer Support Center for problem reporting.
• Operations/Unix Support Specialists
• Middleware Administrators perform administration functions to keep the applications operational.

Excluded

• High-availability and disaster recovery for this service. Additional licensing would need to be procured to address.
• Local PC Administration of OBIEE software.

• Administration for standalone OBIEE and/or WebLogic Servers. This rate covers the shared OBIEE Middleware environment only. Currently only available on the LINUX OS.

Service Level Targets and Availability

• Please note that the Middleware environment is extremely large and requires patching of non-production environments during normal business hours due to the complexity. If an outage can't be sustained in pre-production during these times it will require a minimum of two managed servers.
• Standard business hour coverage is 7:00AM – 5:00PM Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
• If service is required for non-production systems outside of the standard business hours, prior arrangements will be required with the director of this service area.
• Production systems are supported 24x7 365 days a year. If a critical production issue occurs during non-business hours, please contact the Oracle Middleware Team on-call support at 207-624-7700.
• Platinum patching is a 24-hour process and occurs during business hours for all environments.

On the Bill

Oracle Business Intelligence, OBIEE Managed Service

Service Code = MWOBIEE

Service Category = Oracle Database Services

Service Full = Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (MWOBIEE)

Sample NICUS 350 Report-

Columns A-I

Service Rates: Please see the MaineIT Rate Table 

Options Available for Additional Charge

• Additional memory for the managed servers. Please note in some cases too much memory can degrade performance. Please work with your Middleware administrator to ensure it is the right fit before requesting.
• High-availability and disaster recovery for this service. Additional licensing would need to be procured to address.
• Local PC Administration of OBIEE software.
• Administration for standalone OBIEE and/or WebLogic Servers.

Customer Expectations

• Individual users follow State of Maine IT rules and policies, including all security policies.
• Application teams will utilize centrally managed data sources where possible to allow for greater visibility and flexibility of the application. The configuration utilizes Active GridLink (AGL), and Fast Connection with the Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) databases[1]. This provides a highly scalable and highly available environment when configured with multiple Oracle database instances.
  
  • An AGL data source uses Fast Connection to:
    • Provide rapid failure detection.
    • Abort and remove invalid connections from the connection pool.
    • Perform graceful shutdown for planned and unplanned Oracle RAC node outages.
    • Adapt to changes in topology, such as adding or removing a node.
    • Distribute runtime work requests to all active Oracle RAC instances, including those rejoining a cluster.
• Provide a contact person and backup at a minimum, but an email group is preferred. This group will receive updates and work with the Middleware team to configure and stand up the application.
• Report any issues or problems with this service to the MaineIT team as promptly and with as complete information as is feasible.
• With the new security climate, it is critical that we have teams validate patching in the pre-production environments prior to moving to production. If the applicant is unwilling or the application is unable to stay current on the Enterprise Data Services shared OBIEE environment, they will have to move to a standalone configuration. This will incur the cost of the server, OBIEE support costs, and additional licensing may apply. This includes but is not limited to the Operating System, WebLogic, and JDK software.
• At least one pre-production environment is required for every production environment.

To get help, or to order this service

• Call the MaineIT Service Center at 207-624-7700 and assign to the Oracle Middleware team.
• For application projects (new projects, major enhancements, or upgrades), contact the MaineIT Project Management Office (PMO).
• A Footprints ticket is required for all non-production work requests. All production work requests require an authorized RFC. Where applicable, a billing code is required for those items that are not part of the base published rate.
• For new Middleware environments, please send an email to the Oracle Middleware team and schedule an intake discussion. Once complete, we will create a Footprints ticket requesting the environment. Most requests will be completed within two weeks of receiving of a completed request.
• If the published Service Level Agreement (SLA) is not met, the issues can be escalated to the next priority level by contacting any of the following individuals: 
  
  • The Enterprise Data Services Director, manager of the Middleware team, or your friendly Account Manager.
• John Hawkes, Manager of the Oracle Middleware team
• Jeffrey Jordan, Enterprise Data Services Director
  
  • MaineIT Operations will engage the On-Call Core Technology Duty Manager if necessary.
• For an after-hours production break fix contact MaineIT Operations at Customer Support 207-624-7700.

Priority Levels for Monitoring

• The standard production published service level agreement can be viewed at the following link: Standard SLA Maine IT Production Services.
• Standard business hour coverage is 7:00AM – 5:00PM Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, please contact MaineIT Operations.
• If service is required for non-production systems outside of the standard business hours, prior arrangements will be required with the director of this service area and associated fees will apply.