Oracle Certifies PeopleSoft Applications with Oracle® Fusion Middleware

Oracle made this announcement on December 13, 2005. You can read the full press release at this link:
Fusion_Press_Release

Note the following in the middle of the press release:
Pricing
Oracle Fusion Middleware for PeopleSoft customers is available for $60,000 per CPU. It features key components of Oracle Fusion Middleware including portal, BPEL, business-to-business integration, business activity monitoring, business intelligence, single sign-on, Web cache and the Oracle Fusion Middleware PeopleSoft adapter. Terms, conditions and restrictions apply

So, if I've got 3 application servers with 4 processors each, then it's going to cost me $720,000 to purchase Fusion Middleware. Additionally, I'm going to have to pay about $160,000 per year for support.

When we purchased PeopleSoft, it came bundled with BEA Tuxedo and WebLogic. Support for the middleware layer is included in our annual applications support fee. Now, it is true that there are components in the Fusion Middleware that are not in the BEA middleware. But do any of these components add any value to a PeopleSoft shop?

PeopleTools bundled with BEA already includes business-to-business integration, a portal, single sign-on, and web cache. The current generation of PeopleSoft applications can't do anything with BEPL and there are no delivered integration points between the Oracle BI tools and current PeopleSoft applications.

So, somebody tell me, what am I getting for three-quarters of a million bucks? Perhaps the more important question in regard to what this means for PeopleSoft customers who eventually want to upgrade to Fusion. Is Oracle going to try to charge customers to use the required middleware at upgrade time? If so, then they haven't been upfront with the customers. If not, then why charge them now? Why not encourage them to get involved with the Fusion Middleware now in order bind them more tightly to Oracle to help stem future defections?