JBoss Steps Up Tools, Spec Efforts

JBoss Inc., has taken steps to quiet the muttering. On Monday the company extended the JBoss Solution Certification Program to enterprise customers building applications on the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite (JEMS).

Enterprises now have test tools and methods to certify applications on JEMS to make certain they integrate easily into customer infrastructures. The offering fits nicely with JBoss' goal to expand on management capabilities, so companies can easily monitor the health of applications across the network.

Through the certification program, open source customers have access to self-certification tools that integrate thousands of JBoss unit tests and JBoss consulting resources to evaluate test results and provide complete assessments of feature configuration, tuning and performance data. If, for example, a customer upgrades an application or adds a new server, he or she can tap the test suite to validate integration with JEMS before it's moved into production.

For JBoss, the focus on building out its free and open-source middleware platform on service-oriented architecture (SOA) will continue. But future plans also look toward increasing management capabilities and the ability to provision new systems, making open source safe for enterprises to consume, said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management. "There really aren't any interesting players in management," he said. "There hasn't been a vendor that's taken the charge, bringing the technology together to solve real business problems."

In other news, JBoss adds Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) support in JBoss Portal 2.4. Companies that develop portals with JBoss Portal can now customize roles, security, and administrative settings.

Version 2.4 supports service description and markup interfaces, extending support on the consumer side to standard window. The move to support WSRP comes as JBoss steps up its participation in standards groups.

JBoss also launched the enterprise application management platform JBoss Operations Network. JBoss ON 1.2 delivers software and security advisories for applications built on JEMS. It also distributes updates for new releases, patches and security advisories for specific IT environments. "If it's going above 80 percent memory utilization it could kick off alerts and e-mail," Connolly said. "This way the IT side of the house can efficiently manage the infrastructure running JBoss products."