Iona Technologies aims to remove adapters and brokers from the integration equation.
Its Artix series, unveiled last week, promises to help large companies build a true services-oriented architecture (SOA), rebuild legacy applications into Web services and bypass previously installed middleware when exposing Web services across the enterprise.
Artix comprises four products: Relay builds and deploys links to messaging-oriented middleware such as CORBA and MQSeries; Encompass transforms existing application functions into Web services, which can then be distributed over an SOA; Mainframe converts CICS and IMS transactions into services; and Migrate enables applications to bypass middleware platforms that previously had been used to hard-code app-to-app interactions.
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The core integration technology in Artix is embedded inside the services, or end points, that interact over the network, Newcomer said.
End-point integration offers better performance and greater flexibility because services are not hard-coded to each other, Iona said.
In contrast, under the hub-and-spoke method, used by traditional EAI software, an application first sends a data message to the EAI adapter, which in turn forwards the message to the EAI server. The server translates the message into its own proprietary language, then relays the message to a second adapter for the target application. This second adapter finally processes the message. That's four hops and three conversions for one exchange of data, resulting in performance better-suited for batch transactions.
"We've been working with all of the integration leaders, telling them they needed to create a product that wasn't focused on the application layer, but could accommodate whatever topology, whatever architecture the customer has," said Kevin Maunz, senior manager of integration services at BearingPoint, Dallas.
Iona said customers will spend $100,000 to $300,000 for a typical enterprise configuration. Relay and Encompass are available now; Migrate and Mainframe are due to ship this quarter.
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