WebMethods to Corral Java App Server for EAI

In mid-January, webMethods 6 will ship, and the software will be bundled with the JBoss open-source app server, said Jim Ivers, director of product marketing at webMethods, Fairfax,

Va. The app server will be offered free of charge, he said.

"They're eliminating the need for a customer to think they need to bring other [software in," said Brad Murphy, vice president of business development at Valtech, a solution provider with international headquarters in Paris and U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, N.C.

If a customer using webMethods decides to bring in an app server from a vendor such as IBM or BEA, there's a threat of that customer switching to an entirely different software platform from one of those vendors,a platform that bundles an app server, portal and integration software, Murphy said.

Indeed, Ivers acknowledged that webMethods is bundling an app server with its own software in response to increased competition from Java software vendors, which have boosted investments 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."

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

"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 [the app server in Java."

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

Although webMethods' strategy is justified, the move to include an app server with its platform probably won't stave off competitors, said Mike DeBellis, e-business CTO at Braxton, the New York-based integrator formerly known as Deloitte Consulting. BEA, in particular, will pick up some of the traditional EAI business that vendors such as webMethods, Tibco Software and SeeBeyond have now, he said.

Shawn Willett, principal analyst at research firm Current Analysis, agreed that "including JBoss isn't going to be enough to counter the threat of the lower-cost integration brokers, whether they be from BEA, Microsoft or [other vendors."

As long as webMethods continues to "ignore the midmarket" and target large enterprise accounts, it should remain competitive, Willett said.

EAI players such as webMethods and Tibco are dealing with an issue similar to that faced by Java software vendors when they were forced to wrestle with the commoditization of the app server and broaden their software portfolios, said Valtech's Murphy. "The danger is that what happened to the app server space is going to happen to the integration space," he said.

Beyond that, an even more potent enemy will threaten EAI vendors in the future: the evolution of standards around Web services that will eliminate the need for large, proprietary integration platforms, Murphy said. "The bigger threat to these guys than the competition is that there's an emerging set of standards around technologies to build much of the EAI functionality they provide at a fraction of the cost," he said.

Murphy cited SpiritSoft and Sonic Software as emerging players that provide standards-based integration software with price points that are about 50 percent to 75 percent lower than what large EAI vendors are charging.