Oracle will release in 2008 an applications suite dubbed "Fusion" that will serve as a migration point for customers on all three of its applications platforms, executives said Tuesday in presentations at a launch event for Oracle's PeopleSoft integration.

The news helps clarify Oracle's vision for its applications strategy, a point of concern for PeopleSoft customers throughout the companies' protracted merger battle. Oracle bought PeopleSoft last month for $10.3 billion, after an 18-month campaign that began with a hostile bid.

Oracle teams comprising both Oracle and PeopleSoft developers are already at work on Fusion, and early technology from the new architecture will be available in 2006, executives said. Oracle expects to release individual Fusion applications in 2007, and to release a full suite in 2008.

In the meantime, it will continue doing routine maintenance work on all three of its applications lines, and will release in 2006 the next major upgrade for each: PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0, EnterpriseOne 8.12 (the software line PeopleSoft acquired from J.D. Edwards) and the Oracle E-Business Suite 12. Those upgrades will be the last major updates in each line before Oracle moves to the converged Fusion line.

Oracle will support each of the three product lines through at least 2013, accordingly to John Wookey, Oracle's newly appointed senior vice president of applications development. Wookey assumes the position previously held by Ron Wohl, whom Oracle quietly replaced soon after finalizing the PeopleSoft deal.

Fusion will be a Java-based, service-oriented architecture with an automated upgrade process from PeopleSoft, Oracle and J.D. Edwards applications. "Not a conversion -- an automated upgrade," Oracle CEO Larry Ellison emphasized in his remarks at the event.

While working toward Fusion, Oracle will maintain some separation between its Oracle and PeopleSoft development teams. Oracle veteran Joel Summers, Oracle's top human resources applications development executive, has been installed in PeopleSoft's Pleasanton, Calif., headquarters to oversee operations there, Wookey said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.