Suppliers Extending Enterprise Service Buses For SOASuppliers Extending Enterprise Service Buses For SOA

Messaging systems have traditionally been the linchpin technology for businesses implementing service-oriented architectures. But Sonic Software Corp. and Iona Technologies PLC argue that enterprise service-bus technology is the way to go.

Integration services until recently were implemented with a messaging system that carries data from one application to another in a point-to-point connection. IBM's WebSphere MQ (formerly MQ Series) and Microsoft Message Queuing or MSMQ are the two leaders in the field.

Enterprise-service buses are more general purpose, combining messaging systems with Web services, data transformation, and intelligent routing capabilities. That allows data from one application to be sent to many destinations without advance knowledge of the applications running at each one, says David Chappell, in his book, Enterprise Service Bus (O'Reilly, 2004). Chappell is Sonic's VP and chief technology evangelist.

ESBs support service-oriented architectures by supplying the message routing and application connectivity to make "a set of reusable business services widely available," said Forrester Research analyst Mike Gilpin in an August 2004 report. All this means that implementing a service-oriented architecture system is easier using ESBs, backers of the technology say.

On Monday, Iona released Artix 3.0, the newest version of its enterprise service-bus software that now allows new plug-ins to be deployed to live systems without incurring any downtime, says chief technology officer Eric Newcomer. Artix 3.0 is typically priced at $10,000 per CPU.

"Our ESB is more of a virtual bus than a physical connection of rendezvous points. If you have a middleware structure already in place, we can work with that," he says.

Artix 3.0, for example, can be integrated with BEA Systems Inc.'s Tuxedo, IBM's Tivoli, or Computer Associates's Web Services Distributed Management systems. It also can rely on its own extensive integration capabilities to work within a mainframe's CICS, IMS, or Java application environment and make needed connections.

Artix can move messages throughout the infrastructure, "from mobile to mainframe," Newcomer says, and new platforms may be added to the ESB infrastructure by activating a plug-in that starts supplying connectivity without imposing downtime on running systems.

Earlier this month Sonic added two products to its Sonic ESB 6.1 product line: Sonic Collaboration Server and Sonic Database Service.

Collaboration Server is a business-to-business server that extends the ESB connections to business partners and lets an administrator manage the interactions, says Gordon Van Huizen, Sonic's CTO. Collaboration Server is an example of how using an ESB allows an enterprise "to build services on top of its messaging system," adding controls and services to the messaging, Van Huizen says.

The new relational Sonic Database Service integrates any SQL-based database system into a service-oriented architecture as a way of extending hard-to-reach reservoirs of data throughout an enterprise, Van Huizen says. The connections are enabled by high-speed database drivers to IBM DB2, Informix Dynamic Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase Adaptive Server databases, as well as any system that can be reached through Java Database Connect interfaces.

A newly added deployment tool simplifies staged deployments of a service-oriented architecture by allowing testing of a system before it's put into production. It also generates a single deployment archive that records the physical networks over which it will operate, offering a logical view of the deployment, Van Huizen says.

Sonic now offers an SOA Suite composed of its ESB 6.1, Sonic Orchestration Server for managing multiple services, Sonic XML Server for processing XML messages and documents, and the Database Service. All may be purchased separately as well. Collaboration Server will be sold separately and is not part of the suite. Pricing information is available here .