WebMethods Inc. is combining its application integration software with an application server, enabling users to combine business and integration logic in one environment.
The Fairfax, Va., company announced at its Integration World user conference in San Francisco last week that it is adding the open-source JBoss application server source code to its namesake integration platform by the first half of next year.
With the addition of JBoss, WebMethods 6.0 will have a single run-time environment and unified tool set to define business processes, human workflows, data transformations, transactions and trading partner logic, company officials said.
The integration of the two environments will also enable EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) business logic to call integration logic and vice versa directly without requiring additional tools or coding.
At the same time, a single business process definition can be created from what would normally be two separate environments.
Because JBoss is a Java application server built on open source code, the need for an additional proprietary J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application server is negated, officials said.
App Development Meets Integration WebMethods adds the JBoss source code to its 6.0 integration platform
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The 6.0 platform, due in January, has undergone additional tweaking. The platform is a culmination of a three-year acquisition binge that includes Active Software Inc., which brought an integration broker; Trans- Link Software, which brought mainframe access technology; Intelliframe Corp.s workflow technology; and Alier Inc.s business process management technology.
The complete integration of each companys technology within Version 6.0 allows users to manage each of the separate functions from the single context of the platform, officials said.
Corporate Express Inc. already is using JBoss for development and earlier versions of WebMethods products for integration. Andy Miller, vice president of technical architecture at Corporate Express, in Broomfield, Colo., said JBoss is technically on par with application servers from BEA Systems Inc. and IBM, which hes used, and it is cheaper.
Miller is looking forward to the unified development and integration environments coming from WebMethods. “One of the advantages of having an integrated application server in the integration environment is if you have an EJB that you need to include from a business process perspective, its easy to do that,” he said. “You can just deploy it under the integration logic, so calling out the logic becomes inexpensive.”