Digital Evolution Debuts New XML VPN Product Line
Most companies have built Web sites and extranets to allow partners to access their internal systems, but partners using those Web sites and extranets have had to rely on "clunky" solutions such as screen-scraping or rekeying of information if they don't want to invest in proprietary integration schemes, said Eric Pulier, founder and chairman of Digital Evolution. "The inevitable shift has been toward XML, but the problem with exposing XML to partners is that there are questions of authorization, authentication, provisioning monitoring, and quality of service that are not addressed by traditional VPNs," Pulier said.
The XML VPM appliance enables partners to offer and consume applications via XML standards, and facilitate peer-to-peer service exchange with extensive auditing, transaction monitoring, and provisioning, said Pulier, who said that until now there has not been a secure way for organizations to allow service-based communication over the Internet between partners.
"We believe that every company will have an XML VPN over the next five years," said Pulier. "Having defined the category, we think we have an edge in the space. Digital Evolution also markets a Web services management product, and a UDDI registry.
The XML VPN product family consists of two products: An XML VPN Controller and XML VPN Appliance. The Controller provides central policy and rights management and transaction auditing services for the XML VPM environment. It is available as a software product for deployment by a VPN provider, or as a hosted solution. The Controller includes delegated management and Web services rights provisioning capabilities.
The XML VPN appliance is a device that publishes internal services and consumes external services. Service providers use the XML VPN appliance to securely publish internal Web services to selected partners as determined by the Controller.
A key feature of the XML VPN product family is "service virtualization" which enables companies to offer services to partners, and to allow them to look like internal services that can be accessed in the same way as internal services. "This greatly diminishes the complexity of accessing a partner's Web services," said Pulier.
The Digital Evolution XML VPM product family is available immediately. Pricing starts at $75,000.