Integration software developers are preparing upgrades to their middleware offerings, which are focused on improved business-process functionality tempered with ease of use.
IBM, TIBCO Software Inc., Jacada Ltd. and others unveil their new wares at Gartner Inc.s Application Integration and Web Services Summit in Los Angeles this week.
IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., is announcing Version 6.0 of its WebSphere MQ messaging software, which provides the foundation for developing an enterprise service bus—the backbone of an SOA (service-oriented architecture)—from a single Eclipse-based workbench. At the same time, the company plans to release a new version of its WebSphere Business Integration Server Express for SMBs (small and midsize businesses) looking for scaled-down integration capabilities.
TIBCO, based in Palo Alto, Calif., will release a new platform, TIBCO BusinessEvents, which processes complex events to proactively identify and respond to potential threats—or opportunities— that are happening on an ongoing basis across a companys IT environment.
TIBCO BusinessEvents software provides a design interface that companies can use to map business processes and expected outcomes and then measure the impact of processes according to KPIs (key performance indicators), officials said.
Separately, Jacada, based in Atlanta, will release Version 2.0 of its Fusion composite application development platform and will announce a partnership with BEA Systems Inc. to include the companys WebLogic application server and tools as the underlying platform for Fusion 2.0.
Wynn Obermeyer, vice president of information services at West Corp., in Omaha, Neb., is implementing an SOA and a Web service—enabling all of his back-end applications—and said using Jacadas Fusion platform with the WebLogic infrastructure addition will be very helpful in this pursuit.
“Were already moving down the [SOA] path,” said Obermeyer. “Thats one of the big advantages of Fusion—it takes host applications and Windows-based applications and exposes those as Web services. [WebLogic] helps because it basically can be the piece that goes out against all of those Web services, and its the glue that consolidates them all together.”