Iona upgrades ESB with SOA management, orchestration

Iona on Tuesday is introducing Version 4.1 of its Artix ESB, featuring integration with the AmberPoint SOA management platform, as well as orchestration capabilities.

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Through this integration, users can manage Aritx runtimes in the areas of performance and logging. AmberPoint must be purchased separately.

Version 4.1's enhanced orchestration capabilities provide the ability to pass security authentication credentials as services are orchestrated. Quality of service capabilities are featured as well for service orchestration. Iona describes orchestration as the ability to manage a workflow that strings together individual applications into a composite application or service.

Version 4.1 supports the SOAP 1.2 specification and adds WS-ReliableMessaging and persistence capabilities for SOAP 1.2. By supporting these enhancements in relation to SOAP 1.2, messages can be sent reliably even if there is an interruption in sending of messages.

WS-ReliableMessaging and persistence are not included in SOAP 1.2, but Artix is adding these capabilities. "[WS-ReliableMessaging and persistence are] not literal to the spec, but we believe it should be there," said Pat Walsh, director of product marketing and management at Iona.

Content-based routing in Artix 4.1 routes messages based on header information.

Artix features a microkernel architecture for component-based, incremental adoption of SOA infrastructure, Iona said.

With its support for reliable messaging in Version 4.1, Iona is playing catch-up with other ESBs, said analyst Anne Thomas Manes, vice president and research director at Burton Group. But Iona does offer a superior architecture, she said.

"Their architecture, I'm quite fond of it," Manes said. "It's WS-*-based at its core. It means that you don't have to deploy proprietary protocols to make this thing work." Spoken as "WS star," WS-* refers to a series of Web services specifications, including WS-ReliableMessaging, that are being adopted throughout the industry.

Manes added that Iona also supports BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) in this release, but she prefers use of a state-based rules engine for orchestration of services. A rules engine provides more flexibility, she said.

The Artix 4.1 runtime is priced beginning at $10,000 per CPU. Orchestration, high-availability, and security management capabilities cost extra; the orchestration function is $10,000 per CPU, and a plug-in covering high availability and security begins at $2,500 per CPU.