In an effort to relay best practices and strategic deployment of large-scale enterprise Oracle BI deployment, Oracle lends a big helping hand and provides a topology referred to as the Enterprise Deployment Guide (EDG). This guide is not to be taken lightly. When deciding on the major factors of a full-scale, enterprise-wide Oracle BI deployment, this topology is what should be referenced first. Use the EDG to plan for required resource skills, procurement of hardware, and as a gauge to estimate the effort involved in achieving the architecture your requirements demand. The topology includes pertinent information regarding load balancing, virtual IP addresses, separation of HTTP servers from application servers, and other fully vetted infrastructure recommendations. It is especially recommended to view this guide before embarking on any deployment involving extranet access to your Oracle BI implementation or a large user base of an internal deployment.