Vitria Uncouples Messaging

BusinessWare 4, due by the end of the year, has three major new features, said Ted Murguia, Vitria's vice president of product marketing.

The product now includes "solution-driven" modeling, which means solution providers can view all of the integration between applications across an enterprise through one interface. Vitria also has "componentized" EAI functionality in the new suite so solution providers and developers can reuse processes, Murguia said. In addition, BusinessWare 4 is not tied to a proprietary messaging layer, he said. Instead, solution providers can implement the platform on whatever messaging infrastructure they choose.

Murguia said pricing for the Vitria suite varies, but a typical implementation runs between $300,000 and $500,000.

Chris Kraybill, director of business process integration at San Francisco-based solution provider Blackstone Technology, said Vitria's move to separate BusinessWare from a proprietary messaging layer is probably the most valuable addition for integrators.

"Vitria is starting to have platform divergence, so their process-automation tools will sit on top of things like JMS [Java Messaging Service and IBM MQSeries," Kraybill said. "You're not buying the adapters [from Vitria, so you could use Web services for the adapter layer."

EAI customers are looking for ways to shave costs from large implementations, and Web services have become an attractive option, Kraybill added.

Vitria is helping customers solve specific integration needs, particularly in vertical markets such as health care, where the company has had success with a prepackaged solution for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Murguia said. Here, too, he said, is where Vitria is working most closely with systems integrators.

Vitria has more than 100 solution providers, and about 50 percent of its business goes through the channel, a spokesperson said.