WebMethods To Bundle J2EE App Server with New Platform

WebMethods, based here, will bundle the JBoss open-source app server with webMethods 6, which will ship in mid-January 2003, said Jim Ivers, webMethods' director of product marketing.

Because it is open source, the app server will be offered free of charge, Ivers added, but he would not disclose the overall pricing of webMethods 6.

WebMethods' move to bundle an app server with its EAI software is in response to increased competition from leading J2EE vendors such as BEA Systems and IBM, which have increased investment in their own EAI strategies and are trying to woo customers with an integrated application development and EAI platform.

"There's been a lot of pressure from different directions," Ivers said. "The app server vendors have been making a lot of noise about their ability to offer integration."

Ivers said that while webMethods believes implementing a stand-alone EAI platform is a better option than approaching integration from the app-development side, the company wanted to give Java developers better support for integration solutions.

"We're not blind to the fact that Java development has taken a firm stronghold," Ivers said. "We're offering an app server as part of our platform so you can do all the things you could do in the past and, when business requirements are for more complex rules beyond transformation, you can run it in Java."

WebMethods eventually will build the JBoss app server into a version of its platform that will be released in mid-2003, Ivers said.

In addition to the app server bundling, webMethods 6 also marks the first time webMethods has fully integrated disparate components it has acquired from various software companies over the past two years into a cohesive platform, Ivers said. "All the tools are tested, developed and distributed as one whole suite," Ivers said.

Technology integrated into the new software suite includes integration technology from webMethods' acquisition of Active Software in 2000, and workflow technology acquired from IntelliFrame, a Boston-based company, in 2001.