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Cyclone Commerce Inc. is looking to enable companies to capitalize on emerging Web services technologies for building private trading networks by providing new, built-in security and monitoring capabilities in its namesake business-to-business connectivity software.
The Cyclone Open Business Connections suite, announced last week, supports the ebXML (electronic business XML) framework standard as well as the XKMS (XML Key Management Specification) standard.
The latest OBC suite comprises Cyclone Central, Interchange and Activator. Cyclone Central enables large businesses, service providers and electronic marketplaces to quickly ramp up a network of hubs and end points supporting thousands of trading partners. Interchange allows companies to connect hundreds of partners, while Cyclone Activator is a self-service, downloadable on-ramp for a smaller number of partner or supplier connections.
An organizations ability to use Web services is limited by security, inflexibility in deployment and lack of visibility into Web services activity, said Dave Bennett, Cyclones founder and chief technology officer.
In response, the Scottsdale, Ariz., companys OBC suite is built with full support for the XKMS protocol, which provides built-in, beefed-up security for Web services applications.
XKMS combines the interoperability of XML with the security of public-key infrastructure technology—with the result being a method for securing applications.
ebXML support provides consistency and unification for business processes and transactions, said Bennett. Cyclone supports other B2B connectivity technologies including RosettaNet, electronic data interchange, FTP, Java Messaging Service and IBMs MQSeries messaging middleware.
Cyclone user James McLaughlin welcomed the Web services additions, but hes not quite ready for the technology. “Cyclone is a little ahead of the curve,” said McLaughlin, EDI analyst and coordinator at Do It Best Corp., in Fort Wayne, Ind. “Theyve basically built a transport that [will be] ready when things start moving a little further with XML; its not moving as fast as marketers said it would.”