Its All About Abstraction Layers

Xuma has evolved enterprise application integration messaging technology to create a Distributed Internet Operating System that provides a plug-and-play application infrastructure upon which e-business solutions are built. The Xuma application infrastructure provides a robust messaging layer to facilitate integration of Web system applications to a common bus, thus eliminating the need for developers to do extensive and fragile point-to-point integration.

The Xuma application infrastructure is capable of integrating smoothly to custom applications, third-party software and legacy systems. Mission-critical integrations also benefit from real-time messaging and guaranteed message delivery. The Xuma application infrastructure is future-proof because integrations can be upgraded with new releases, extended or added onto over time, as Web system needs evolve.

The means by which the Xuma application infrastructure is extended to custom applications, third-party software or legacy systems is through an interface entity known as an adapter. Similar to the drivers used by a PCs operating system, adapters allow varied hardware and software products to be fully connected together. These software adapters allow Xuma to offer its plug-and-play application infrastructure for Web systems, whereby new software and hardware can be integrated into a Web system in drastically reduced timeframes with a massive reduction of risk in terms of development cost and variability of quality. The Xuma application infrastructure is built using Tibco messaging technology, and as such is compatible with prebuilt adapters for many existing applications.

The result is that Xuma can build e-business infrastructure very rapidly. The company claims that a basic platform (exclusive of a companys business logic) can be set up in about 40 hours. Its just a matter of selecting from the different "solution stacks" of preintegrated application objects. At present, the company integrates Microsofts Commerce Server, ATGs Dynamo, BEAs WebLogic Commerce Server and Moais LiveExchange as its core e-Commerce applications. Add third-party software and services from CyberSource, Documentum, VeriSign and Oracle. All that remains to be done (and Xuma co-founder Jamie Lerner is the first to admit that this takes the most time) are the custom features and business logic for the site. If Xuma is building and hosting the solution, chances are that hardware will come from Dell (an investor in the firm) or Sun, and the gear will be staged at an Exodus or Level 3 hosting facility.