Is OAM alone enough or should I also learn OIM/SOA for Apps DBA ?
We recently launched Oracle Access Manager Training (next batch starting on 6th July), one question that I’ve seen quite regularly is “I am an Oracle Apps DBA and learning OAM alone (without OIM/SOA and WebLogic) with Apps DBA will give me better opportunity or is it required to learn entire Identity Management Suite”
Since OAM/OIM is very close to my heart (I wrote my first book on this topic) and I meet lot of Apps DBAs with similar question, I thought I should cover this question here .
Before I answer this question, let me first explain about OAM/OAM/SOA and other IAM products. Oracle Access Manager is recommended Web Single Sign-On product from Oracle Identity & Access Management Suite where other products include OIM, OID, OUD, OVD, OES, OMS, OAAM, OES, eSSO etc
Oracle Identity Manager is identity provisioning and management product that uses Oracle SOA Suite for approval based workflows and as Orchestration engine.
OAM and OIM products can be implemented independently and if you need just Single Sign-On (or Access Management) then Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) is not required . If you are using Oracle E-Business Suite (App R12) and just require SSO integration with Microsoft Active Directory (MS-AD)/Windows Native Authentication or with other oracle products like OBIEE, WebCenter etc then OIM/SOA is not required.
Having said that, it is better to know more so learning OIM will definitely help but I always believe in starting with small (keep things simple). I learnt OAM (Oblix that time) in 2003 and started OIM (Xelleterate at that time) 2 years later in 2005.
Note: OAM is deployed on WebLogic Server so basic WebLogic Concepts must also be learnt as part of OAM hence we cover WebLogic Domain, Admin/Managed Servers, Pack/Unpack, JDBC etc in our OAM 11gR2 Training/Workshop .
Tip for Apps DBAs to get better day rate/bigger role : Learn OAM and integrate EBS (R12) with OAM for Single Sign-On .
Having any doubt on what topics to learn then check what our OAM experts have to say or leave a comment here for any other query .