Cape Clear Readies New Web Services Offering

The new product, which is code-named Generation 4 and scheduled for official rollout at the end of the month, adds support for asynchronous messaging tools such as IBM's MQSeries; a management console; support for a broader array of transformations across vertical industry standards for various XML schemas; and a task-oriented rapid application development (RAD) environment for developers.

In addition, the new release will add support for Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), which is rapidly becoming the industry security standard for Web services.

David Clark, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Cape Clear, said the company currently has 120 customers and has been adding about 25 per quarter.

While the average deal size for Cape Clear is $50,000, the company does have a handful of six-figure engagements, Clark said. "With Web services, people are [doing more than just dipping their toes," he said.

Cape Clear stands out among the new breed of Web services tools vendors by having already developed a "robust" product that's easy to use, said Marc Camm, COO of Adjoin, a Boston-based solution provider and developer of Web services systems management software.

"They really have an understanding of what challenges developers face when they're producing Web services," Camm said.

The burgeoning Web services space has leveled the playing field for vendors providing development and deployment tools in that "everybody %85 is a new company," he said, adding that he expects Cape Clear to be a leading player as interest in Web services becomes more widespread.

"As the market continues to grow for Web services deployment, I see [Cape Clear as a long-term contributor," Camm said.

The nature of Web services engagements makes application integration projects more accessible to a broader number of systems integrators, Clark said, adding that he expects many of these companies will soon be challenging larger, more established, consulting firms for these types of projects.

Cape Clear cited Decision Architects, Houston, and Wind Vision, Palo Alto, Calif., as two integrators working with major enterprise customers.

"Among our customers, about 40 percent are using Web services for internal integration projects, 40 percent are using them for portal applications and about 20 percent are doing some type of business-to-business application," Clark said.