Emerging Software Segment Reshapes EAI

XMLGlobal Technologies, Iona Technologies, Sonic Software, SpiritSoft, Data Junction, Xaware and others are offering a new category of software that uses XML transformation to transfer data between systems. Research firm Gartner coins this emerging software segment "enterprise service bus architecture."

These enterprise service buses provide an open, low-cost means of integrating applications and offer a smooth path for using Web services,rather than proprietary software,in systems integration, said Gartner analyst Roy Shulte. By 2005, most enterprises will be running such service buses, he said.

And vendors such as XMLGlobal will be supplying the necessary technology. The New York-based company has several offerings under its GoXML brand, including GoXML Transform, an engine that converts data from various formats to XML for communicating with disparate systems, and GoXML Transform XTE, an integration broker.

Lockheed Martin recently passed over vendors with more proprietary technology and chose XMLGlobal to build a business-process repository for the U.S. Air Force, said Bryan Baker, vice president of product marketing at XMLGlobal. Using the GoXML Registry, Lockheed Martin crafted a solution that allows authorized users of an Air Force intranet to search a repository of various business document objects that are XML-based representations of business processes.

Iona, a Waltham, Mass.-based CORBA infrastructure vendor that refashioned itself into a Web services integration company two years ago, is perhaps the most mature of this new breed. Iona has been successful in getting large enterprises, including Boeing and AT&T, to use its Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform to rearchitect their systems, said Iona CEO Barry Morris. And early next year, the vendor plans to unveil a new line of products designed to drive Web services adoption through local integrators, Morris said.

Low-cost, standards-based integration alternatives to large middleware suites are reshaping the EAI game plan, solution providers say.

"With all of the smaller companies betting on open standards, it definitely changes the competitive [landscape," said Pragnesh Dave, enterprise architect at Genisys Consulting, Elk Grove Terrace, Ill. "Now proprietary companies need to rethink that strategy."

For example, XMLGlobal's GoXML Transform XTE costs $45,000,far less than a typical EAI platform, which costs at least $100,000 to even begin an implementation, solution providers said. Likewise, Sonic Software's XQ product, which uses XML transformation and a Java Messaging Services architecture for integration, costs only $10,000 per CPU.