Did Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g set a performance record? Yes and no

First off, congrats to Oracle for setting a performance record for a 4-processor system and achieving the highest performance per core with SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark with WebLogic Server 11g. The press release, dated April 8, 2011, can be located here.

This is good news for people like myself, whose entire professional career is centered around Oracle technologies. As many of you know, I'm a big supporter of both Oracle and its technologies, and if I didn't believe in their products, I wouldn't be working on them.

However, my issue though is the title of the press release:

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Sets Record Performance for a 4-Processor System and Achieves Highest Performance Per Core with SPECjEnterprise2010 Benchmark

It's misleading. Last I heard, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g consists of over 30 products (and now hardware) within areas of Business Intelligence to Collaboration to Data Integration to Service-Oriented Architecture. The subheading to the press release fortunately clarifies things a little better:

Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Running on Dell Beats IBM WebSphere on a Similar Configuration

It's confusing enough for those customers out there who don't know what the heck you're referring to when you say "Oracle Fusion Middleware". So although I do appreciate Oracle trying to promote this single application infrastructure foundation, in reality, most customers only use a subset of its products and get confused with the constant reference to the term "Oracle Fusion Middleware".