KnowNow shows off integration agility

I like the simplicity that comes from building the engine on top of HTTP. As I worked my way through some of the more advanced concepts in the KnowNow developer's manual, I found myself quickly understanding what was happening behind the scenes because of my experience with HTTP. This architectural and operational transparency means that HTTP-savvy developers and administrators alike will easily pick up the concepts and be able to use LiveServer without having to do complex mental gyrations. 

Free IT resource Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) May 22-23, 2007 Sponsored by OSBC Free IT resource Virtualization Insights from Top Experts - Learn how virtualization gets real! Sponsored by Dell KnowNow 3 Enterprise Edition KnowNow, knownow.com Very Good  8.0 criteria score weight Interoperability 9 20% Manageability 8 20% Reporting 7 15% Scalability 9 15% Security 7 10% Setup 9 10% Value 6 10% Cost: LiveServer is priced per session or per node. Typical price for a Proof of Concept is $25,000; enterprise deployment ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 Platforms: LiveServer: Windows 2000 and XP, Linux, Solaris; LiveBrowser: Internet Explorer versions 4 and higher, Netscape versions 4 and higher Bottom Line: KnowNow provides a standards-based real-time event messaging system for integrating applications across multiple platforms. The loosely-coupled architecture provides real flexibility. Conceptual simplicity and good integration capacity create a powerful engine, but the high cost may be a dealbreaker. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

KnowNow supports SSL for securely transferring information between the server and its clients. Authentication is done using HTTP Authentication on the front end with authentication and authorization information being pulled in via LDAP or from LiveServer's built-in user database.

The LiveServer API provides hooks to create your own custom access control modules, but I'd like to see built-in support for some of the more common authentication engines, such as Netegrity SiteMinder, and federation standards such as SAML.

Sticker Shock

Because KnowNow is built on HTTP and uses standard GET and POST methods, everything you know about scaling the Web is applicable to the KnowNow platform as well: Load balancers and proxies work like they're supposed to, because KnowNow routes messages with a process similar to that used to route Web traffic (unlike SOAP, for example).

The use of standard HTTP-based messaging is an important part of KnowNow's simple integration philosophy. LiveServer also supports clustering for fail-over, allowing two or more LiveServer engines to be used together in response to message transport problems.

Unfortunately, it's the price of enterprise applications that is starting to cause me real heartburn. KnowNow quotes typical deployments in the $100,000 to $500,000 range. I've talked to lots of small companies that might buy into KnowNow's vision of using loosely coupled event servers for integration; none of them could afford to lay out that much cash.

That's a shame, because it means KnowNow's high cost will limit its market to big players and reduce the impact of a good product. Many other enterprise applications vendors do the same thing, but the agility of this platform makes it all the more galling -- you'll see so many small but valuable applications for the technology as soon as you start using it. If the price gets in the way, many admins won't get a chance to see KnowNow's full power.

Even so, I believe KnowNow 3 Enterprise Edition will be a breath of fresh air to IT shops stuck in large, monolithic integration projects. The simplicity and ease with which small integrations can be started and subsequently grown to encompass more and more of the back office should put KnowNow on every CIO's list of products to evaluate.