Web Services Arena Hotter Than Ever

Systinet on Tuesday unveiled a WASP 4.5 OEM edition, which will enable ISVs to embed Systinet's WASP 4.5 suite of Web services development, deployment and management solutions into their software products.

According to the Cambridge, Mass.-based company, nearly 50 percent of its revenue comes from ISVs who choose to plug the SOAP capabilities of WASP 4.5 into their applications. By OEMing the technology, ISVs are able to pitch their products as fully Web services-enabled without having had to build in the capabilities themselves, Bruce says.

"ISVs have been asked to create products so that the business logic within their application can be exposed as a Web service to another application, an end user or a trading partner," said Ian Bruce, director of marketing for Systinet. "The way to add that layer is through a SOAP stack. But most ISVs don't consider that that layer core to what they do."

Systinet's WASP-based SOAP stack is available for both C++ and Java-based commercial applications, according to Bruce. It also features SOAP processing capabilities that allow third-party applications to exchange data across disparate platforms, including Microsoft's .Net, J2EE application servers and Apache Axis.

Meanwhile, several other vendors are looking to address the management and security headaches that are bound to erupt as Web services gain more widespread use among solution providers and corporate enterprises.

To that end, Digital Evolution and Actional this week each took the wraps off new management-oriented products that they claim will act as traffic cops for Web services circling the enterprise.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Digital Evolution unveiled DE Management Server 2.0, which creates a "pipeline" of customizable management components that handle versioning, cashing, routing and transport protocols as Web services move across systems. The solution sports four key components, including a server console, policy manager, alert manager and UDDI registry manager that enables search and discovery of Web services.

For its part, Actional has also made Web services management the cornerstone of their business. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company this week added several new products and capabilities. The firm also inked a strategic partnership with Microsoft to jointly market and sell solutions that promote each other's products.

As for their products, Actional Looking Glass is a new Web services server and console with centralized policy management and administrative capabilities. Actional SOAPstation 4.0, the next release of the company's flagship broker for managing Web services interactions on the network, boasts improved performance and integration with Looking Glass, according to company officials.

Finally, Actional made available Active Agents for Microsoft .Net, which will gather runtime statistics and monitor performance of Web services running over Microsoft's platform. Active Agents will soon be available for both BEA's WebLogic Server and IBM's WebSphere, according to officials.