XAware 5: Open Source Data Integration Software

Data integration, data abstraction, and data Services are core needs when considering SOA. Legacy databases alone do not provide adequate ways to represent information in the context of SOA. However, the use of a data abstraction layer allows architects to define virtual schemas using better logical structures that offer a more effective fit for SOA implementations.

The bundling of data integration as an open source solution further increases the value of this approach. Open source SOA solutions provide two major advantages: first, they are typically less expensive than proprietary tools and technology. Second, they are often simpler and easier to understand and use. XAware’s open source model is a key differentiator in the data integration marketplace.

IT’s Hottest Couple? Open Source and SOA

Is this coupling just a reflection of a general trend to adopt open source, or is there a particularly compelling case for open source and SOA?

That’s exactly the question SOA consultant and David Linthicum tackled this week on his InfoWorld blog. Linthicum begins by explaining the significance of the XAware announcement — a cheaper way for companies to add data abstraction to their SOAs — but moves on to explain why he’s such a proponent of open source solutions for SOA.

His first reason — they’re less expensive — is pretty much the reason any business goes with open source. True, technologists may be motivated by the philosophical implications, but my impression is that, ultimately, the main business driver is cost.

Read more at: IT Business Edge

When Data Abstraction Meets Open Source

If there is anybody who is a champion for data abstraction when it comes to SOA, it’s me. Moreover, if there is anybody who is a champion for open source SOA technology, it’s me. So, how about if there was a company who provided both?

That’s the concept behind XAware’s new open source offering, which follows a few other SOA open source players, including open source ESBs and application servers. XAware, who has provided a data management and data abstraction technology for years, has recently moved into the open source world with their XAware 5 offering. What’s cool about this product is that it lowers the cost of entry into the world of data abstraction for SOA, and puts the end user in direct control. XAware is looking to build a community around this product, as well as a support infrastructure, which is critical to any open source play.

Read more at: InfoWorld

XML data integration for SOA goes open source

Going the commercial open source route is a good move for XAware, said David Linthicum, managing partner of ZapThink, LLC., because it will help them reach the SOA development community that can use its tools.

“It provides them with access to a market that typically would not be considering their technology,” Linthicum said. “It also provides them with closer ties to developers and closer ties to feedback that’s going to come back from the developer community. They are going to be closely tied to the people who leverage their technology. That’s an advantage and also the ability to sell their technology to people who are doing SOA.”

Read more at: SearchSOA

David S. Linthicum: Open Source and SOA

What’s funny about open source is the number of definitions I see for it, and the number of reasons why people think it’s a good thing. I kind of look at it like hybrid cars. Most people don’t know how they work. They just know they are good, and thus want them. So, let’s drill down on this a bit.

Read more at: SD Times

XAware Recognized as Leader in Service-Oriented Information Integration by ZapThink Research

XAware, Inc., a leader in XML-based information exchange, is featured in new research published on February 26, 2004, by industry analyst firm ZapThink. This research report, “Information as a Service: Service-Oriented Information Integration” introduces the concept of service-oriented information integration (SOII) and presents XAware’s XA-Suite as a compelling SOII solution for enterprises with distributed and dynamic IT environments. ZapThink is an IT market intelligence and research firm that provides trusted advice and critical insight into XML, Web Services, and Service Orientated Architecture.

According to ZapThink analyst Ron Schmelzer: “XAware’s SOII solution offers a unique and compelling solution to firms looking for the advantages of loosely-coupled, standards-based integration without the need for detailed modeling of data sources. In environments of continuous change and dynamic information sharing requirements, SOII, and specifically XAware’s XA-Suite, provide solid answers to today’s information integration challenges.”

XAware is pleased to be featured in ZapThink’s SOII research,” said Bill Miller, XAware’s CEO. “XAware has gained market share by crafting an integration solution that is standards-based and able to provide rapid value to our customers. It’s rewarding to be recognized for our innovative technology by ZapThink, a highly-respected industry analyst firm.”

Read more at: XAware Press Release

Information as a Service: Service-Oriented Information Integration

As organizations grow organically, they often implement multiple systems that contain information that is redundant, conflicting, or distributed across their organization. As such, the seemingly simple task of trying to gain a single view of the information contained in the enterprise is a significant challenge. The requirement for single view, aggregated views, or shared information cuts cross the value chain from sales leads, orders, to products, inventory — including e-government initiatives in public safety, health and defense. While many application integration approaches attempt to solve this disparate information challenge by removing the barriers to accessing information, the challenge still remains of how to gain intelligence from the disparate data in the enterprise.

Previous approaches to information integration have fallen short. Tightly coupled data or application integration approaches that mandate point-to-point connections between systems are too brittle to handle continuously changing business requirements. Message buses and business process management approaches offer some relief for integration challenges, but only solve parts of the overall information integration challenge and leave the task of aggregating disparate views of data to the user. Finally, model-driven approaches to information integration work well when a company has visibility into their data formats and schema, but present challenges in an organization with limited information visibility.

To address these challenges, this paper introduces the notion of Service-Oriented Information Integration (SOII), which approaches information integration in a loosely-coupled, coarse-grained, asynchronous manner that seeks to avoid the requirements of comprehensive data modeling prior to integrating with them. This paper also presents XAware’s compelling SOII solution for meeting evolving information integration challenges. Their approach provides enterprises with an XML based abstraction layer that provides aggregated, virtual access to all of a company’s existing information assets

Service Orientation Market Trends

While Web Services have been getting the attention through 2003, in 2004 the IT computing story will be focused squarely on Service Orientation. Offering an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that provides greater business agility while enabling companies to use heterogeneous resources more efficiently, Service Orientation, based on established Web Services standards, is set to fundamentally change many different IT markets as enterprises transition to Service-Oriented Architectures.

In particular, the markets of application security, security appliances, system management, application integration, data integration, and business process management are six key markets that will become transformed as vendors in those markets Service-enable their products. Furthermore, there is a window of opportunity for new entrants in each of these markets to build Service-oriented offerings. Those windows will soon close, however, as the established, incumbent vendors in each space consolidate their respective markets.

These consolidation trends will continue through the rest of the decade, as large vendors round out their suites of software that support Service Orientation, resulting in a combined market consisting of vendors offering a full-function SOA Implementation Framework. These frameworks will offer enterprises all the functionality they need to build, run, and manage SOAs. The market for SOA Implementation Frameworks is still nascent as of 2004, but will dominate the distributed computing arena by 2010.

XML in Financial Services

The Financial Services Sector covers a wide range of businesses and industries revolving around the management and exchange of financial instruments. There are a number of factors that contribute to financial service’s role as a leading implementer of XML technologies. The potential opportunities and pitfalls, and current ways in which XML is being used by this industry sector are explored in detail in this report.

Service-Oriented Integration

Connecting systems both within the enterprise and with suppliers, partners, and customers is of critical importance to today’s enterprise. However, integration remains complex, expensive, and risky. While Web Services won’t be the magic bullet that immediately solves these problems, they enable a new approach to integration. Service-Oriented Integration (SOI) leverages open standards, loose coupling, and dynamic description and discovery capabilities of Web Services to reduce the complexity, cost, and risk of integration. This report identifies the key aspects of SOI, solutions for implementing SOI, ROI metrics, and critical challenges.