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April 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)

It's Tuesday in the Test Center, and there's a wealth of blogging on services of one sort or another. There are services from large to small, internal to external -- it's just a service-oriented world out there.

Google leads Salesforce in SaaS: Ephriam Schwartz looks at the SaaS battle between Google and Salesforce.com and sees the advantage in nearly every category going to Google. Google, he says, has the technology, the cash, and (most important) the strategic vision to be the same sort of giant in services that they've been in search. Is this good news? It depends, as so much does, on whether you're a customer or a competitor...

Social services?: David Linthicum has been reading press releases from vendors, and has seen an interesting approach from IBM: SOA as dating service. Big Blue wants to help publishers and builders of different services find one another so they can play nicely together -- ideally, in IBM's SOA sand box. No word, yet, on whether you have to share your favorite band and what you're doing every waking moment in order to be truly popular.

The criminals find services: Criminal minds are unlikely to let any good idea go un-exploited, and Matt Hines is looking at criminal elements who are getting in on software as a service -- for malware. Criminal hackers aren't known for their cooperative mindset, but SaaS lets them build on existing code and turn their real efforts to the creative part of the venture -- the creative part that makes sure life will be difficult for the rest of us.

Posted by Curt Franklin on April 8, 2008 01:25 PM

March 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Test Center Tracker: Web services tied and tested

Free mashups: Built on an Apache Axis2-based application server, the WSO2 Mashup Server (in its 1.0 debut) lets you stitch together Web services, Atom, RSS, HTML, and other data sources, and share them with your inner or outer circle. Mashup Server is completely, 100 percent, absolutely free and open source, with support available from the company starting at $2,000 per server per year. Steven Nunez has the review; this would be the same Steven Nunez who brought us the review of WSO2's "lightweight, fast, and free" Enterprise Service Bus 1.0 in November.

LISA fakes it: As a SOAP test tool, iTKO's LISA 3.6e was not as easy to use, as rich in Web service testing features, or as nicely documented as Parasoft's SOAtest 5.1 or Crosscheck's SOAPSonar 3.0.5, as per Rick Grehan in his November 2007 roundup. LISA 4.0 rebounds with a cool virtualization capability that allows QA folks to quickly and easily create simulated Web services for testing. Plus, LISA is hardly limited to SOAP or even RESTful Web services, but also provides tools for testing Web apps, Java applications, JMS systems, and enterprise service buses. See Rick Grehan's review of LISA 4.0 here; you'll find his November comparison of AdventNet's QEngine, Crosscheck's SOAPSonar, iTKO's LISA, Mindreef's SOAPscope Server, and Parasoft's SOAtest here.

Three free and fabulous Web service test tools: LISA and the other commercial tools allow users to test Web services without having to muck around in the XML. For users with a technical command of XML, SOAP, and WSDL, a freebie can take you further than you might think. Check out Rick's comparative look at Eviware SoapUI, PushToTest TestMaker, and WebInject from last May.

Posted by Doug Dineley on March 18, 2008 06:00 AM

March 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Test Center Tracker: Web services tied and tested

Posted by Doug Dineley on March 18, 2008 06:00 AM

February 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Symphoniq views SOA

Symphoniq is releasing Tuesday TrueView for SOA, to manage SOA environments by monitoring activity spanning from the browser to the application, server and service.

Intended to ensure user performance levels, the product tags and traces transactions across architecture tiers including external cloud services, the company said. Problems can be detected as the user experiences them by pinpointing the root cause of performance problems before they become widespread.

SOA represents new ground for Symphoniq, which previously focused only on monitoring Web application performance for J2EE and .Net applications.

"What we're doing in terms of the SOA area [is] Symphoniq focuses on Web application performance management and a lot of our customers are actually starting to deploy based on SOA. So we're starting to expand our platform," said Hon Wong, Symphoniq CEO.

"Our product actually measures real user experience," Wong said.

Featured is measurement of in-the-browser experience, visibility into which services and machines have been federated together and drill-down information into service performance problem code

Pricing for the system begins at about $30,000.

Posted by Paul Krill on February 19, 2008 08:00 AM

February 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Rogue Wave touts SOA service creation

Focusing on SOA data service creation, Rogue Wave Software has announced the release of its HydraSDO for XML 2.2 product and the next edition of HydraSDO for Databases.

HydraSDO data components automate the creation of service-oriented data services in Java and C++, the company said. These components enable developers to expose a data source as lightweight data services through the Service Data Object (SDO) API for data access in SOA.

HydraSDO for XML 2.2 enables XML documents to be read and updated via SDO and provides a data access service for XML.

HydraSDO for Databases lets developers use SDO to access relational data in loosely coupled and tightly coupled application architectures. Read/write capability is provided for databases using SDO without the need to write SQL statements. Databases supported include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Sybase databases.

XML and relational database data sources are made available through an XML-style SDO interface that can be used by multiple applications as a real-time SOA data service.

HydraSDO data components can work stand-alone or be integrated into RogueWave's HydraSCA product, which supports the Service Component Architecture (SCA) specification.

Developers can use the single HydraSDO API to expose data sources and improve developer productivity, Rogue Wave said.

Posted by Paul Krill on February 4, 2008 04:31 PM

November 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IBM makes SOA, telecom rollout

IBM is announcing products and product upgrades Tuesday to assist telecommunications carriers and others to use SOA and Web 2.0 to deploy voice, video and data services.

Service providers can deliver IP-based services. Product lines involved in the release include the Rational, WebSphere and Tivoli lines.

"IBM is helping to enable service providers to create, combine and deploy new telecommunications services based on emerging technologies," said Tim Greisinger, vice president for communications sector solutions in the IBM Software Group, in a statement released by IBM. "With IBM's Web 2.0, SOA and IP technology leadership, service providers may also have the capability to deliver innovative services with greater speed and quality in a much more open and flexible environment."

Products featured in the plan include:

* IBM Rational Performance Tester Extension for SIP, to enable testing of SIP-based applications.

* IBM SIP Modeling Toolkit for Rational Software Architect, to model SIP applications.

* IBM WebSphere XML Document Management Server, to manage XML documents including group lists, user profiles and contact information.

* An upgraded IBM WebSphere Telecom Web Services Server, to leverage Web 2.0 technologies to deliver a secure gateway for third parties to access personalized capabilities such as location-based services. Parlay X 2.1 Web services capabilities are supported.

* An upgrade to IBM WebSphere Presence Server, to collect and distribute real-time information about access. Performance and functional enhancements are featured.

* IBM WebSphere IMS Connector, to enable applications running on WebSphere Application Server to communicate with IP Multimedia Subsystems core elements like Call/Session Control Function. The new release supports pre-paid or credit-based charging.

* IBM Tivoli Netcool, which is software to monitor WebSphere IMS.

Products are available now.

Posted by Paul Krill on November 20, 2007 07:33 AM

October 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

DataDirect touts mainframe SOA technology

DataDirect Technologies announced availability this week of DataDirect Shadow version 7, for mainframe SOA environments.

Version 7 incorporates technology to exploit IBM mainframe specialty engines that reduce mainframe costs of ownership and improve SOA, DataDirect said. These specialty engines include the System z9 Integration Information Processor (zIIP) and the System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP). Software currently run on the mainframe General Purpose Processor is redeployed to these specialty engines.

Specifically, version 7 will open zIIP to additional workloads beyond DB2, including mainframe data queries to IMS, VSAM, Adabas and IDMS. Also supported is SOAP/XML parsing for transformation of business logic and screen logic into Web services.

With Shadow, SOA integration processing and data queries will be diverted from the mainframe GPP and offloaded to zIIP and/or zAAP specialty engines.

Also featured in version 7 are capabilities for expanded mainframe SOA initiatives that allow organizations to orchestrate Web services using BPEL 2.0 on the mainframe inside the zAAP engine, Integrated Facility for Linux or any standard Java Virtual Machine platform.

Mainframe data connectivity in version 7 is boosted through high-performance client drivers.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 19, 2007 10:50 AM

October 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SOA testing tools advance

Mindreef and iTKO are making separate moves Tuesday in the SOA testing space.

Mindreef has integrated its SOAPscope Server SOA and Web services testing software with HP Quality Center, a centralized platform for managing processes and automating software testing.

SOAPscope Server tests for functional regression and performance. This adds to what Quality Center does, according to Mindreef. Teams can centralize and manage testing and automation efforts using HP Quality Center while leveraging Mindreef capabilities for Web services testing and SOA quality management.

"Quality Center is more of a central dashboard for running and reporting on tests. It's not a tester itself," said Frank Grossman, Mindreef co-founder and CTO.

Also offered now in SOAPscope Server is a command line interface. This allows Mindreef users to run load checks and test suites such as unit, functional and regression tests from a command line by running a test script. SOAPscope server can be integrated with a developer's build infrastructure such as a Windows scheduler,

ITKO is announcing availability of Lisa 4 SOA Testing, a product suite for testing SOA. Featured is Lisa Virtual Service Environment, enabling distributed teams to deliver SOA applications in an agile and test-driven way, iTKO said. Service behaviors are captured and virtualized. Development and testing is freed from having to deploy and support test environments.

Rich Internet application testing in Lisa includes no-code test capture, management and dynamic staging and playback of functional and performance tests. Browser simulation is offered as well as testing for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and Swing applets.

Dynamic load testing also is highlighted as is the ability to test business processes. These processes can be tested in a reusable, modular way.

Also, Lisa tests against access points of ESB systems, including JMS (Java Message Service) messages, Web services and connection databases.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 2, 2007 11:43 AM

September 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Serena readies mashup exchange

Serena on Monday is announcing a mashup exchange, featuring an online catalog of pre-packaged mashup applications.

The Serena Mashup Exchange features mashups that can be used as is or with the company's Mashup Composer, which can modify them.

The exchange is part of Serena's Business Mashups announcement, featuring an on-demand service for deploying mashups. With the tools being unveiled, business users can deploy "Business Mashups" for everyday use, Serena said.

Content, services, workflow and other application building blocks can be combined in these mashups. Geared for specific business needs, the mashups can be deployed on IT-managed servers or on Serena's on-demand servers.

In addition to the online exchange, components of Serena Business Mashups include:

* Serena Mashup Composer, for visually composing mashups. It is designed to look and work like an Office 2007 application.
* Serena Mashup Server, handling the technical execution of mashups including SOA-based orchestrations and BPEL processes. Mashup Server will be available as an on-demand server in early-2008, with a beta program set for this year.

Posted by Paul Krill on September 10, 2007 06:00 AM

July 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Iona offers open source SOA products

Iona Techonologies announced this week products intended for open source SOA, available under the Fuse brand and based on Apache Software Foundation projects.

Fuse components are designed to meet requirements for messaging, service enablement and SOA connectivity. They are interoperable with the Iona Artix SOA infrastructure suite.

Fuse-labeled products include: ESB, based on Apache ServiceMix and the Java Business Integration specification; Message Broker, based on Apache ActiveMQ; Services Framework, formerly the Celtix Advanced Service engine and based on Apache CXF, and Mediation Router, based on Apache Camel.

Iona provides services and support for the products.

Posted by Paul Krill on July 10, 2007 09:09 AM

June 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SOA governance hailed in partnership

LogicLibrary and Mindreef plan next week to announce a partnership intended to produce an end-to-end SOA governance and testing solution.

The companies have integrated the LogicLibrary Logidex SDA (Software Development Asset) governance hub with the Mindreef SOA quality platform, which features SOAPscope Server and Mindreef Policy Manager. Logidex features an inventory of software development assets. SOAPscope Server provides for quality testing of SOA while Policy Manager is an add-on to SOAPscope for policy authoring and validation of services.

With the integrated platform, users gain governance capabilities extending from enterprise architecture and technical policy definition through to service development and deployment, LogicLibrary and Mindreef said.

Posted by Paul Krill on June 22, 2007 06:35 AM

May 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Telelogic offers SOA products

Telelogic this week announced Telelogic System Architect for SOA and Tau 3.1, which are intended to accelerate SOA adoption by enabling business and IT collaboration in enterprise architecture and service development.

System Architect for SOA provides planning and implementation of enterprise architecture and business process analysis for SOA. Organizations can model business processes and relate these to new and existing services.

Tau 3.1 is a model-driven development environment for designing and assembling business solutions for SOA. The new product features automated import and generation of WSDL, XSD (XML Schema Definition) and generic XML framework details. Expanded Java and C# capabilities also are featured.

Telelogic said that with the two tools, the company unites model-driven applications for SOA and service-based capabilities that enhance business agility.

Posted by Paul Krill on May 22, 2007 08:23 AM

May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IBM bolsters SOA

IBM at its IBM Impact 2007 conference in Orlando, Fla. on Monday unveiled a series of services and products focused on SOA.

More than 4,500 IBM customers have modeled their businesses around SOA, IBM said.

"SOA has been a growth engine for IBM as well as our customers because it gives companies the much-needed flexibility to focus on achieving business results without being hindered by the constructs of established infrastructures," said Steve Mills, senior vice president, IBM Software, in a statement released by the company. "IBM's differentiation is in its ability to address business challenges using the right balance of business and technical skills along with an unmatched, multi-pronged approach to meeting customers’ needs."

IBM announced tools and programs to boost SOA skills and understanding. These include:

* SOA roadmaps featuring business blueprints fo specific industries. These include: insurance, member enrollment and benefits/eligibility for healthcare, payments for banking, personal shopping for retail, service provisioning and delivery for telecommunications and supply chain for the industrial space.

* IBM TV: Impact Channel, an online portal featuring webcasts, podcasts and other components to develop technical and business skills.

* Innov8, an interactive SOA game.

* Enhancements to SOA certification and education programs, including self-paced and instructor-led courses.

* Professional services for SOA Diagnostics, SOA Strategy, SOA Implementation Planning and Business Process Management enabled by SOA. Also introduced were SOA Design Development and Integration and SOA Management services.

IBM also said it has integrated technology acquired from DataPower, SOA appliances and FileNet Content Management and Business Process Management software into the IBM SOA portfolio. The company announced WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance X150, which supports direct database connectivity and supports WebSphere's Transformation Extender design studio. This provides common tooling across the company's enterprise service bus portfolio.

A new version of IBM's DB2 Dynamic Warehouse integrates with IBM Information on Demand and SOA strategies for "Dynamic Warehousing" solutions. Organizations can analyze and use information to optimize business processes and perform other tasks.

To bolster governance, IBM introduced Rational Asset Manager, providing service lifecycle management.

For SOA on the mainframe, IBM introduced a new version of WebSphere Process Server on System z, to automate business processes and consolidate mission-critical elements of a business onto a single system.

Posted by Paul Krill on May 21, 2007 06:53 PM

May 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Progress touts Actional for SOA

Progress Software is announcing on Monday its Actional 7 products, for SOA management.

Actional 7 consists of three SOA management products: Progress Actional for SOA Operations, Progress Actional for Continuous Service Optimization and Progress Actional for Active Policy Enforcement. Each product is intended to address a business need and contribute to a governance strategy that addresses potential SOA runtime risks, Progress said.

The SOA Operations product provides end-to-end visibility across an SOA. The Continuous Service Optimization piece furnishes a business context to manage SOA behavior to meet business goals. Active Policy Enforcement ensures compliance with security and regulatory policies and provides centralized management.

All products in the Actional 7 package are sold separately and will be available in June.

Progress acquired Actional in 2006.

Posted by Paul Krill on May 13, 2007 09:00 PM

April 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)

JBoss, SOA Software partner on governance

JBoss and SOA Software this week announced a partnership through which SOA Software will offer governance and other capabilities for Web services deployed on the JBoss application server.

Enterprises deploying SOA applications on JBoss middleware are the intended beneficiaries.

Users of JBoss will be able to utilize SOA Software's Workbench for governance and service management for Web services. Closed-loop governance is provided for design time and runtime Web services, said Roberto Medrano, executive vice president at SOA Software.

Design time involves design, contract and policy creation while runtime enables enforcement.

Workbench includes a registry, repository and lifecycle management for Web services and the JBoss platform.

SOA Software's Service Manager furnishes authentication and authorization for Web services consumers using JBoss, as well as privacy and non-repudiation of Web services transactions on JBoss.

"Really, from the JBoss side of things, our SOA strategy really entails working with partners like SOA Software, helping our individual customers meet and roll out their SOA initiatives," said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management in the JBoss division of Red Hat.

Future plans call for extending SOA Software's products to support the JBoss ESB (enterprise service bus) as well.

Posted by Paul Krill on April 3, 2007 06:41 AM

March 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

OASIS approves Web services standards

OASIS announced on Tuesday approval of WS-SecureConversation version 1.3 and WS-Trust version 1.3 as OASIS Standards.

This status is the organization's highest level of ratification. The two standards define policies and extensions to WS-Security to enable trusted exchange of multiple SOAP messages, OASIS said.

WS-Trust provides for issuance, renewal and validation of security tokens and establishment, detection and brokering of trust relationships. The specification builds on WS-Security by introducing an XML syntax and a protocol to enable the issuance and dissemination of credentials between different trust domains vi a Security Token Service.

WS-SecureConversation allows for security contexts to be created and key material to be exchanged more efficiently, said OASIS.

IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have verified implementations of WS-SecureConversation and WS-Trust, OASIS said.

Posted by Paul Krill on March 27, 2007 04:32 PM

March 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SOA Software adds infrastructure for IBM

SOA Software announced on Monday the availability of SOA infrastructure for IBM's WebSphere application server.

The company has released agents and delegates for WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Business Integraton Message Broker. These agents and delegates work with the SOA Software Service Manager product for managing and securing SOA. They ensure that applications using Message Broker and the application server can implement security, reliability and interoperability policies as part of a governance solution, SOA Software said.

The SOA Software SOLA (Service Oriented Legacy Architecture) product, meanwhile, adds the ability for WebSphere applications to consume mainframe transactions as Web services. SOA Software's Workbench product can govern WebSphere services, managing their lifecycle.

Posted by Paul Krill on March 5, 2007 04:23 PM

February 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Attachmate touts SOA for mainframes

Attachmate on Tuesday debuted Verastream Host Integrator 6.5, for accessing mainframe data and logic.

The product is geared to SOA integration. Featured is flexibility for Web-based user interfaces and support for 64-bit hardware and software platforms.

Verastream Host Integrator transforms legacy applications into SOA assets, exposing business proceses as Web services, XML, Java and .Net components that can be reused. No changes are required to mainframe application code, Attachmate said.

Microsoft Vista support is included in version 6.5. Also supported are the latest Java application infrastructure standards. End-to-end communications are encrypted between the client and the mainframe.

Verastream Host Integrator works within IBM mainframes as well as with IBM iSeries, Unix and HP OpenVMS and e3000 environments.

Posted by Paul Krill on February 27, 2007 04:33 PM

February 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

ChainBuilder ESB leverages JBI

Bostech on Monday announced general availability of ChainBuilder ESB, an enterprise service bus tuned for Java Business Integration (JBI) and SOA.

Featured in the product is a graphical user interface for configuring JBI-compliant components via a drag-and-drop capability. Users also can accommodate non-XML message formats such as X12 EDI.

The ChainBuilder ESB Component Flow Editor allows for users to lay out an SOA and view all integration components. Layout is done via an Eclipse IDE interface.

Run-time components can be controlled in a production environment through an AJAX-based (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) Web interface that also features statistics and runtime logs.

ChainBuilder is ESB is available either via a common GPL (GNU General Public License) or via a subscription featuring training, support and a warranty. A commercial license is available in situations where GPL is not available or for users who do not release source code for their applications.

Posted by Paul Krill on February 5, 2007 02:49 PM

January 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

webMethods ships Fabric 7.0 for BPM

WebMethods is now shipping its webMethods Fabric 7.0 business process management suite, the company said on Thursday.

Featured is an environment for process development, automation and monitoring. The webMethods Infravio X-Registry and Infravio X-Broker are featured for SOA governance. A new modeling environment based on Eclipse provides a single toolset for the process lifecycle, the company said.

Business activity monitoring is included as well, along with business rules management provided by Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor. Codeless assembly of AJAX-based (Asynchronous JavaScript) applications also is featured.

Posted by Paul Krill on January 10, 2007 10:18 AM

December 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Recursion upgrades ESB

Recursion Software on Thursday announced a new version of its enterprise service bus, Cinergi 2.1

The ESB serves as a multi-language application integration platform supporting SOA and Web services. Featured in version 2.1 are enhancements in security, reliability and performance.

Bidirectional communication is offered for C++, Java and .Net clients and servers. The same port for communication from the client to the server is used for server-to-client links, thus strengthening network security by eliminating the need to open two ports. One port is sufficient for data, transactions and processes.

The Cinergi runtime environment for C++ supports 64-bit processing for the AIX 5.3 and Red Hat Linux platforms. An Architect Console included with Cinergi leverages 64-bit CPUs for performance; software engineers can use the console to select business logic to expose as a service.

A failsafe feature in version 3.1 protects against server failure once a runtime application starts. Clients and servers will continue to communicate regareless of the ability to hook up with the license server. A client application will check license availability through the server application first, bypassing the license server if it is unavailable.

Posted by Paul Krill on December 21, 2006 02:16 PM

December 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Ipedo boosts Web services capabilities

Ipedo is bolstering Web services capabilities in its XIP (eXtensible Integration Platform) enterprise integration software.

Additions to Ipedo XIP for release 4.2 are intended to enable easier deployment of data services in an SOA. XIP allows users to make data available as Web services.

New features include:

* One-click publishing, featuring a wizard for publishing of Web services. Security profiles in Web services and WSDL generation are supported.
* Dual caching, for caching of a Web services natively as XML or in relational form. This improves performance.
* Web services table metadata, to display lineage and dependency information.
* A tuning of the Ipedo XQuery engine for SOA, offering more insight and performance.
* Join hints, which minimize the number of Web services calls to fulfill a query request.

Ipedo also has joined the Web Services Interoperability Organization, which promotes Web services interoperability across platforms.

Posted by Paul Krill on December 20, 2006 11:13 AM

December 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)

ChainBuilder ESB moves to beta stage

Bostech has released a beta version of its open source ChainBuilder ESB v1.0 at ChainForge.net, positioning the enterprise service bus for SOA.

The ESB complies with the Java Business Integration specification. Usability and feature enhancements are highlighted in the beta release, along with the initial version of ChainBuilder ESB for Linux.

Improvements in the beta release include source code availability, FTP communication support and dynamic content-based routing. IDE testing capabilities linked to the Eclipse platform also are featured. Graphics have been improved in the ESB's Component Flow Editor.

Developers can download the open source software under the common GPL license or purchase a subscription that features training, support and intellectual property indemnification. A commercial license is available for users who do not want to release source code under the GPL.

The general release of ChainBuilder ESB is planned for January 15.

Bostech had discussed the ChainBuilder project in October.

Posted by Paul Krill on December 18, 2006 12:37 PM

October 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Bostech unfurls Java ESB software

Bostech on Monday unveiled ChainBuiler ESB, a Java Business Integration offering that can be used as an enterprise service bus.

ChainBuilder, which currently is in an alpha stage of development, enables disparate software systems to plug into ESB and SOA infrastructures. Featuring a graphical interface rather than a programmatic interface, ChainBuilder enables depiction of an integration environment. Developers can consider the flow of application integration and drill down on each component to define specific details.

By plugging into the Eclipse IDE, users can configure ESB components.

The product can incorporate back-end systems that operate with non-XML formats, including EDI X12 as well as fixed and variable formats.

A dual license format enables ChainBuilder to be available under a common GPL license and through subscriptions as well. Subscriptions feature training, support and intellectual property indemnification. A commercial license also is available.

ChainBuilder will be generally available on January 15, 2007.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 30, 2006 09:15 AM

October 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Oracle SOA suite boasts governance

Oracle at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Monday announced availability of Oracle SOA Suite 10g Release 3, featuring governance capabilities.

The suite has an integrated, browser-based console to administer policies across multiple distributed enforcement points in Oracle and non-Oracle middleware. Other features include the ability to identify and publish services to a registry and facilities to view services securely. Centralized management of service-level agreements also is featured.

Governance capabilities in Release 3 include an enhanced registry and manager for Web services. A component of the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform, the suite also features a one-click install, an enterprise service bus, expanded workflow and enhanced Web services security and interoperability.

BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) functionality includes expanded workflow capabilities that provide a simplified workflow designer and new algorithms for complex task routing and escalation.

The suite is priced at $50,000 per CPU with Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition and $65,000 per CPU for non-Oracle application servers.

Also at the show, Oracle and Adobe announced a collaboration to help developers build enterprise-level Web 2.0 applications. These applications will be able to include animations, charts and graphs in Adobe Flash combined with other AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) content in a Java-based portal such as Oracle Portal. Development of enterprise mashups featuring animated graphs and visualizations is a goal of the arrangement.

Oracle also unveiled Oracle Developer Depot, a free developer productivity tool that simplifies how Java developers find and provision Java applications for learning or prototyping purposes. The product runs with Oracle Application Server 10g. Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX, the Spring 2.0 Java framework and RSS are leveraged to boost code reuse and simplify development.

The company at the conference announced Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer Challenge, designed to award achievements in categories including: best SOA-based application or service, best Web 2.0/AJAX-based user interface or mashup and best application demonstrating the combined use of Oracle and open source software.

Developers in the United States and Canada can submit entries between now and Dec. 31, 2006. Oracle technologists will judge the entries, with the grand prize winner receiving a 37-inch high-definition television. Two runners-up receive a Slingbox Pro streaming device.

Rules can be found here.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 23, 2006 04:20 PM

October 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Preview: Oracle SOA Suite 10.1 Developer Preview

The SOA (services-oriented architecture) conundrum: how to glean simplification through services without sacrificing enterprise management and security.

I had a glimpse at the forthcoming Oracle SOA Suite bundle and found it does a good job propping up the business case for next-phase, real-world enterprise-services deployment on an Oracle infrastructure.

The suite contains an updated BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) process manager, ESB (enterprise service bus), business rules, and Web services manager. The requisite Oracle 10g Application Server (with OC4J and J2EE support, and a wealth of enterprise-grade management tools in tow) was also included, although the final release is slated to support non-Oracle J2EE servers as well.

Despite the headiness of the infrastructure, Oracle has done a nice job masking the installation complexity. For the most part, this was a one-click process with some minor wizard-driven configuration en route. To be sure, this installation did not entail any of the advanced configuration testing that will be undertaken for the final release, but the simplification showed good effort on Oracle's part.

The development lynchpin is a hardened new release of JDeveloper Studio with some SOA Suite-specific plug-ins that greatly enhance Oracle's feasibility for services composition, BPEL, and ESB design.

I found the graphical BPEL process manager tools, wizards, and support for lifecycle management to be strong additions to flow and orchestration. New features, like keyword search on BPEL elements, pay mind to usability in larger models. And, wizards for defining human workflow integration simplify bridging approvals and notifications into processes.

The ESB designer also showed graphical development of bus-based app integration. Good routing and transformation improvements, as well as added features for service virtualization and interdependency analysis, got me hooked. As Oracle's ESB supplants its InterConnect as the force majeure in app integration, more comprehensive management tools like this will be compulsory.

The beta preview had limitations and key pieces, like BAM (business activity monitoring, were not yet shown. But, Oracle SOA Suite appears poised to pit battle with competing offerings like BEA's AquaLogic.

The Oracle SOA Suite Developer Preview is available now for download from the Oracle Technology Network site with a final public release due Oct. 23. Watch for my forthcoming in-depth, exclusive review for the InfoWorld Test Center.

Oracle SOA Suite 10.1.3.1 Developer Preview
Available: Now; generally available on Oct. 23
Pricing: Starts at $50,000 per CPU

- James R. Borck, InfoWorld Test Center Senior Contrubuting Editor

Posted by James Borck on October 16, 2006 05:45 AM

October 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)

LogicLibrary bolsters SOA repository

LogicLibrary on Thursday announced availability of Logidex 5.0, which is that latest version of the company's design-time repository/registry for managing SOA services.

Service consumption governance and integration with Eclipse projects are featured.

Logidex provides a combination of a repository for services production, a registry for services and artifact consumption and UDDI and ESB (enterprise service bus) publication options. Governance capabilities are provided for the SOA lifecycle.

The 5.0 release expands the use of the company's Smart Controls technology, for controlling software development assets, to include service consumption governance. Also featured are SOA-based ROI metrics, dynamic user views and internationalization. Version 5.0 extends Logidex's reference modeling support to cover the Eclipse Modeling Framework.

An AnySource Artifact Adapter feature in Logidex 5.0 acts as a single sign-on facility for artifact retrieval, insulating users from cumbersome access complexities, LogicLibrary said. An Active Asset Analysis function provides feedback on service and asset usage. Integrated governance reports are provided based on the Eclipse Business Intelligence Reporting Toolkit.

IBM Global Services will be reselling Logidex. LogicLibrary is part of the IBM SOA Specialty Partner program.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 12, 2006 11:47 AM

October 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Web services notification standard gets nod

OASIS on Wednesday announced its approval of WS-Notification version 1.3 as an official OASIS standard.

WS-Notification defines a pattern-based approach to disseminating information amongst Web services. The standard actually consists of three different specifications: WS-BaseNotificiation, for standard message exchanges; WS-BrokeredNotification, defining message exchanges to be implemented by a "Notification Broker," and WS-Topics, providing an XML model to organize classes of events. Also, WS-Notification leverages the WSRF (Web Services Resources Framework) standard from OASIS and is used in turn by the OASIS Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM)standard.

AmberPoint, Fujitsu and IBM already have implemented WS-Notification, OASIS said.

Companies such as CA and Tibco Software endorsed the specification in prepared statements released by OASIS.

"WS-Notification provides an essential publish/subscribe event mechanism for higher-level, service-oriented management protocols such as OASIS WSDM. This standard will enable the IT community to further advance the flexibility, efficiency, and ease by which enterprises can maintain the health of their increasingly complex computing environments," said Paul Lipton, senior architect for the CA Wily Technology Division.

"The approval of WS-Notification is a significant milestone for developers and users responsible for SOA at their organizations. By standardizing the way events are communicated using open, as opposed to proprietary protocols, WS-Notification has become a key element to the foundation of service-oriented, event-driven enterprise architectures," said Matt Quinn, vice president of Product Management and Strategy at Tibco Software.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 11, 2006 01:12 PM

October 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)

IBM builds out SOA partner programs

IBM on Thursday is expanding its SOA outreach, with new programs, services and partner incentives, including the development of SOA Specialty Wikis for vertical industries.

As part of its Web 2.0 push, IBM and SOA Business Partners are building Wikis for SOAs in both vertical industries and specialized focus areas. Also, podcasts will be available to educate business partners and customers on the business value of SOA, IBM said.

IBM's new "Ready for SOA" program, meanwhile, provides incentives for IBM SOA Specialty Business partners supporting the IBM SOA Foundation, which is a set of software, best practices and patterns for deploying SOA. Upon passing a Ready for SOA validation test, partners can receive technical enablement, support and a skills-building roadmap to access SOA market opportunities. Ready for SOA is a branding mark.

Additionally, IBM is developing SOA Joint Solution Galleries to assist partners by providing technical resources, demos and marketing materials. IBM's "cross-sell" kits for SOA hold relevant information and roadmaps for business partners to expand product or service offerings to include SOA.

IBM has commitments from eight SOA Business Partners to develop industry-specific services for the WebSphere Business Services Fabric, which is a new technology based on pre-built, customizable SOA assets, semantic models and policies supporting standards such as ACORD and HIPAA.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 11, 2006 11:03 AM

October 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)

MuleSource trots out ESB upgrade

MuleSource on Tuesday is releasing version 1.3 of Mule, which is an open source enterprise service bus for integration projects.

Mule features a simplified development model that has prompted its use in many enterprise integration scenarios, MuleSource said. Enhancements in Mule 1.3, which is based on Java, support the platform's use in SOA, MuleSource said. MuleSource in version 1.3 extends support of XFire, which is a next-generation SOA framework that uses an API to make SOA approachable, MuleSource said. Additionally, Mule developers can interoperate between Apache Axis, webMethods Glue and .Net Web services. Version 1.3 also backs popular application server transaction managers, including BEA Systems's Web Logic and IBM's WebSphere as well as JRun, JBoss and Resin. Generic JNDI (Java Naming and Director Interface)) support also is backed.

Version 1.3 also features performance upgrades, including faster HTTP transport, JMS (Java Message Service) session caching boosts and optimization of metadata-handling for higher execution times. Mule services in the 1.3 release can be invoked by Spring remoting services. A new HiveMind container allows developers to obtain objects from a HiveMind registry.

MuleSource offers support services for Mule.

Posted by Paul Krill on October 2, 2006 03:56 PM

September 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)

BEA puts SALT on Tuxedo

BEA Systems this week released SALT 1.1 (Services Architecture Leveraging Tuxedo), extending Tuxedo applications to SOA.

SALT 1.1 provides a Web services layer on top of Tuxedo.

"It allows a whole new generation of Web services clients to get access to mainframe-style applications based on Tuxedo," said Bill Roth, vice president of the BEA Workshop group. SALT serves as a Web services stack on top of Tuxedo for doing high-throughput, transactional Web services, Roth said. Web serices and XML can be used instead of an older native language, Roth said.

"BEA SALT provides a high performance, easy to use, configuration-driven model that accesses existing Tuxedo services as standard Web services using SOAP over HTTP protocol," according to BEA's Web site. SALT is configuration-driven and does not require programming changes for accessing Tuxedo services.

A separately licensed product, BEA SALT complies with Web services specifications such as WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-Addressing, SOAP 1.1, SOAP 1.2, and WSDL 1.1. The Tuxedo security framework is used for authentication with SALT.

Posted by Paul Krill on September 1, 2006 05:29 PM

July 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Fiorano adds .Net runtime to ESB, SOA platforms

Fiorano Software this week released a native, managed .Net runtime for the company's enterprise service bus (ESB) and SOA platforms, the company said.

By adding the runtime, Fiorano's ESB now supports native C, C++, Java and all languages in the .Net Framework, including C# and Visual Basic. Developers can build and deploy distributed applications using multiple languages over a single framework.

With Fiorano's software, developers can leverage high-speed messaging and component-based SOA development using a wide mix of languages. The company features a peer-to-peer distributed architecture for linear scalability.

Fiorano on its Web site describes the Fiorano ESB as a Web services-capable middleware infrastructure platform supporting intelligently directed and mediated relationships between loosely coupled and decoupled business components.

Fiorano SOA 2006, meanwhile, is an SOA platform for real-time business based on a Business Component Architecture. (BCA).

Posted by Paul Krill on July 21, 2006 01:55 PM

May 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Mindreef upgrades Web services tester

Mindreef on Wednesday said it is shipping Mindreef SOAPscope version 5.1, an update to the company's Web services and diagnostics testing package.

New features include automated testing, in which users can create a sequence of SOAP messages that can be replayed as a batch and stored for re-testing later. Web service simulation in version 5.1 enables development of simulated Web services to serve as a prototype of a service. Support for multiple workplaces, meanwhile, allows for creation and editing of multiple workspaces within the product, for switching between separate, open workspaces.

An enhanced Web services invoke/resend capability enables users to "round trip" between SOAPscope's Pseudocode View and XML view. Contract documentation in version 5.1 features a richer WSDL viewing capability, with detailed online documentation.

Version 5.1 also features integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, improved SSL certificate management and control of SSL authentication policy.

SOAPscope is priced at $299 for a one-year subscription. It is accessible here.

Posted by Paul Krill on May 9, 2006 01:32 PM

April 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)

BEA offers beta of software platform

BEA Systems this week released a beta version of WebLogic Platform 9.2, featuring the company's application server, portal and developer platform.

Included are WebLogic Server, WebLogic Portal and BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform. Portal 9.2 offers content management enhancements, improved federation and the GroupSpace collaborative application and framework.

Workshop is based on Eclipse and features tooling for Apache Beehive technologies, page flows for MVC (Model-View Controller) Web development and support for standards-based Java Web services and Java 5 annotations.

The beta release is downloadable here.

Posted by Paul Krill on April 7, 2006 11:57 AM

March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Webalo User Proxy boosts SOA, Web services

Eyeing SOA deployments, Webalo on Tuesday unveiled a Web service called "User Proxy," which is intended to provide a consistent user experience across Web services regardless of the device being used.

Acting as a mediator between Web services and the end user, the software provides a proxy for end user interface devices such as PDAs, smart phones and notebook computers. Users are able to have a continuous "always on" presence, in which User Proxy accepts information on behalf of an offline user and then interacts with the user later.

Through the User Proxy, an application can write to a "super device" and then reconcile formatting of the application's data and the device interface protocols to match the device being used at the moment.

User Proxy also features a dashboard-type approach to the interface itself and how it should react to changing circumstances. Integrators and developers can implement SOA applications with device-independent interfaces.

Posted by Paul Krill on March 28, 2006 12:36 PM

March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Oracle releases upgraded UDDI registry.

Oracle this week began shipping Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) Service Registry 10.1.3.0.0, a UDDI v3-compliant platform for publishing and discovering Web services across the enterprise, the company said.

UDDI v3 compliance is new to this version of the registry. Calling the registry a key component of an SOA, the registry enables service providers to expose service offerings, allows service consumers to access and invoke services and provides for SOA governance, Oracle said.

Oracle licenses the registry from Systinet. The registry functions with Oracle Application Server.

Posted by Paul Krill on March 28, 2006 10:13 AM

March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)

BEA boosts data access technology with Microsoft support

BEA Systems on Wednesday will announce the release of AquaLogic Data Services 2.1, for unifying data assets from disparate sources. Version 2.1 adds support for Microsoft's ADO.Net (Active Data Objects), enabling native access to this data. Previously, access required use of Web services.

"Through a set of tooling and run-time support, we provide this interoperability with .Net," said Paul Patrick, vice president and chief architect at BEA.

BEA's technology previously was known as Liquid Data. AquaLogic Data Services is applicable in SOA, helping to service-enable data to build composite applications such as Web applications and portals.

Uniform auditing of events across heterogeneous sources also is featured in the new version. Operational monitoring to capture metrics associated with data service executions boosts SLA tracking in Version 2.1.

Posted by Paul Krill on March 22, 2006 07:52 AM

March 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Infravio partners with Layer 7 on SOA governance interoperability

Infravio and Layer 7 Technologies announced the integration of Infravio X-Registry Platform, the company's SOA governance solution, and Layer 7's SecureSpan products for governing and accelerating Web service integrations.

The integration is designed to provide customers with comprehensive interaction between policies and contracts maintained in Infravio X-Registry Platform and SOA security enforced by the Layer 7 SecureSpan Gateways.

The interoperability offers SOA governance advantages such as bi-directional integration of Registry Repository and run-time environments, and life-cycle management of security policy metadata.

Posted by Caroline Craig on March 21, 2006 12:08 PM

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