Archived News for 2007-8: XML, SOA, Semantics and Web Services
University of Konstanz Database Group Announces BaseX
The Database and Information Systems Group at the University of Konstanz announced
BaseX version 4.0, a native XML database
implementation. BaseX is an open-source project that supports XQuery 1.0, content-based indexes and partial support of XQuery Full-Text. The BaseX web site includes
several videos that provide tutorials about using BaseX.
Pixware Releases XMLmind XML Editor Version 3.7
Pixware's XMLmind division announced the release of version 3.7.0 of the
XMLmind XML Editor. The new release adds support
for DITA DTD 1.1 and includes DITA Open Toolkit version 1.4. XMLmind Personal Edition is a free download. It has no restriction on schemas and supports DTD, W3C XML
Schema, Relax NG and Schematron.
Red Hat Offers Amazon Web Service for On-Demand Computing
Red Hat has opened a private beta test for users who want to scale out applications by using grid
computing technology and web services. Red Hat will provide an integration offering that enables
users to gain access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux by using the
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
web service. EC2 users are able to configure multiple instances, using small, large and extra-large
servers and add capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis.
|
WSO2 Announces Version 1.5 Enterprise Serve Bus
Open source SOA vendor
WS02 announced the release of WS02 Enterprise Service
Bus 1.5 with
support for caching and the ability to run scheduled tasks. WS02 ESB also support the Plain Old
Java Object (POJO) model, XQuery, message augmentation with databases and other performance
improvements. WSO2 works with J2EE, .NET, JMS, and Apache Axis and other Web services
frameworks.
StrikeIron Launches Web Services Developer Community
StrikeIron, a leading registry of commercially available Web services, has announced formation of
StrikeIron Developer
Community. The new community includes project pages that will enable developers to collaborate on projects and share code, tools and other developer resources.
Developers can also use StrikeIron’s Web Services Commerce Platform, which tracks service usage and provides an invoke-through compensation mechanism. In September 2007,
StrikeIron and IBM announced a partnership to provide 100 data services to IBM's QEDWiki. |
|
O'Reilly Publishes GIS for Web Developers
O'Reilly's Pragmatic Bookshelf had added
GIS for Web Developers, a book by author Scott Davis
of Digital Globe. The book explains how to geographically-enable applications using freely-available data and open source software. It explains the use of ESRI shape
files, Geography Markup Language and free geographic data on the Internet.
IBM IMS Adds XQuery, XML and SOA Capabilities
IBM IMS is a 40-year old hierarchical DBMS that's getting a facelift.
IMS 10 is the latest of IBM's database
platforms to add features for supporting XML document processing, XQuery and Web services support. Besides IMS 10 support for XML, Java, and JDBC, IBM has enhanced the IMS SOAP
gateway.
Sun and Microsoft Announce Agreement on Servers
Sun Microsystems and Microsoft announced an alliance for refining the companies server products. Sun has become a Windows Server OEM, enabling Sun to bundle its
server hardware with the Windows Server operating systems. Sun and Microsoft will also cooperate on cross-platform virtualization, enabling organizations to run Solaris
and Windows Server on 64-bit systems. Sun and Microsoft will cooperate on deploying Microsoft multimedia solutions, including Mediaroom IPTV, on Sun servers and storage
systems. As part of the agreement, Microsoft and Sun will also build an interoperability center on Microsoft's Redmond campus. (MP3
audiocast).
WS-I Demonstrates Secure Interoperability at Gartner Conference
The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) hosted an interoperability demonstration at the Gartner Application
Architecture, Development & Integration Summit in Las Vegas (3-5 December 2007). WS-I and member organizations (BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP and Sun) demonstrated secure,
interoperable web services that conform to the WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0. The demonstrations at the Rio Hotel used a Supply Chain management example that
interoperates with WS-Security 1.0 and WS-Security Token profiles.
January 2008 Hands-on XSL Training in Austin, Texas
Ken Holman of Crane Softwrights announced two hands-on training sessions in Austin, Texas in January 2008.
XSLT/XPath 1.0 and 2.0 to run from January 7-11, 2008. The XSL-FO 1.0 and 1.1 session ran from January 14-16, 2008. These courses combine the use of lectures and
exercises, with the material being taught by a world-class instructor.
OGSA-DAI 3.0 is Major Rewrite
The OGSA-DAI project announced the release of OGSA-DAI 3.0, a middleware product that provides web services to
access SQL and XML databases. Developers can use OGSA-DAI to provide data access in grid computing environments. The OGSA-DAI software conforms to the Open Grid Forum's
Database Access and Integration Services (DAIS) specifications of March 2003.
NIST Publishes Guide to Secure Web Services
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a 128-page web services
security guide
. It discusses trust relationships, secure service-to-service exchanges, and threats
such as denial-of-service attacks. It also covers
current and emerging standards, such as SAML, XACML and WS-Trust.
W3C Issues Last Call for 3 XQuery Documents
The W3C XML Query Working Group has announced a last call for public comments on three documents related to XQuery Update. They are
XQuery Update Facility 1.0,
XQuery Update Facility 1.0 Requirements and
XQuery
Update Facility 1.0 Use Cases. The period for comments closes 31 October 2007.
iWay Software Releases iWay 2007
iWay Software, a provider of enterprise integration solutions, announced the release of
iWay 2007. The release includes an update to iWay Service Manager,
enhancements to iWay SOA Management Suite, and a new version of iWay Integration Workbench. The iWay Service Manager is an enterprise service bus (ESB) that runs within
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) application servers. The iWay SOA Management Suite provides an enterprise-wide SOA governance solution and iWay Integration
Workbench is an Eclipse-based integrated developer environment (IDE).
Massachusetts Approves Office Open XML Document Format
The state of Massachusetts has approved the ECMA Office Open XML Document Format for use by state agencies. This will enable workers to continue using Microsoft
Office. Office OpenXML has been approved as a European
standard by ECMA International, which submitted it to the standards process of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). A petition from Free
Information Infrastructure (FFII) opposing the ISO fast track for the ECMA 376 Office Open XML standard reportedly has thousands of signatures. In addition, the British Standards
Institute has submitted a contradiction to the bid to fast track the ECMA standard through ISO.
More Than 200,000 Developers Swarm to Amazon Web Services
Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels said in an interview with Network World that more than 240,000 developers have signed up for
Amazon web services. Developers are using Amazon web services such as S3 (Simple Storage Service), EC2
(Elastic Compute Cloud) and SQS (Simple Queue Service). Amazon also offers the Amazon E-commerce Service that targets developers building e-commerce sites that partner
with Amazon.com.
ActiveBPEL Designer Voted "Best Integration Tool" in SOA World Reader's Choice Awards
Active Endpoints, Inc. announced ActiveBPEL™ Designer was named "Best Integration Tool" by a poll of readers of
SOA World. Active Endpoints is a provider of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) orchestration products and services. ActiveBPEL Designer is a native Eclipse
Ready™ technology which the company says is in use by thousands of SOA architects and developers. ActiveBPEL Designer is open source software (free download).
Zend Technologies Releases Zend Framework 1.0
Zend Technologies announced the availability of the first production release of the Zend Framework, a PHP-based tool for web application development.
Zend Framework 1.0 is an open source class library based on the Model View
Controller (MVC) paradigm. It uses HTTP, REST, and XML-RPC clients and servers and provides classes to publish and consume Web services in PHP. Zend Framework 1.0
supports several web services client interfaces, including Amazon, StrikeIron, Yahoo and Google Data APIs. It also supports AJAX and
Javascript Object Notation (JSON). Zend Framework is released under a BSD license.
W3C Releases WSDL 2.0 Specification
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) version 2.0 as a three-part recommendation.
WSDL 2.0 provides full support for the SOAP and HTTP protocols, in addition to inheritance, import functions
and improved error diagnostics. The W3C also provided a converter to WSDL 2.0 for developers who've implemented web services that conform to the WS-I Basic Profile.
Vendors Integrate Building Automation Systems with IP Networks and Web Services
The US General Services Administration and states such as Missouri have embarked on programs to converge IT and power
management systems in newer buildings. The new approach to
reduce energy consumption uses IP networking, and in some cases Web services, to integrate power management systems with IT operations. Centralization of building
automation is expected to dramatically reduce energy consumption and provide monitoring capabilities and a central console for IP networks. Cisco, Richards-Zeta Building
Intelligence and GridLogix have been developing solutions in this space, with GridLogix's EnNET software using Web services and XML. GSA will
eventually move maintenance management systems for its 8,000 public buildings to an IP-networking solution.
ESRI Announces Free Client for Integrating ArcGIS Server and Web Services
ESRI announced public availability of ArcGIS Explorer, a lightweight application that
lets you visualize maps and connect to applications and services on the Web. ArcGIS Explorer supports the fusion of local data with Web services, provides publishing
ArcGIS Server capabilities, with access to ready-to-use globes hosted by ESRI.
SAP in Dustup Over Patents
Participants developing e-business standards with UN/CEFACT and OASIS are expressing concern about SAP
patent filings. SAP has participated in CEFACT and in development of the new Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS), which provides a foundation for OASIS UBL
and new CEFACT standards. Klaus-Dieter Naujok, former chairman of ebXML, reports the SAP patents are so generic they apply to EDI standards, including UN/EDIFACT and ANSI
X12.
Workday Challenges Oracle and SAP with SaaS
Entrepreneur David Duffield, who founded and built PeopleSoft into a powerhouse, is putting his energy today into 2-year old
Workday. The new venture is challenging
established software suite vendors by offering on-demand software, also known as software as a service (SaaS). To provide integration in a hosted, on-demand SOA, Workday
is using Cape Clear Software's ESB. Workday is currently embedding the Cape Clear ESB in SaaS-based human resources applications for a dozen customers. Besides Workday,
companies such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite and RightNow Technologies are promoting a migration to SaaS and on-demand software.
WS-I Upgrading Profiles to Boost Messaging and Security
The Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization is upgrading profiles, including its Basic Profile and Basic Security Profile. It also plans to release a Reliable
Secure Profile. Adoption of the WS-I Basic Profile ensures a high degree of interoperability between services.
The upgrade to the Basic Profile will support the WS-Addressing specification and SOAP-based attachments. The Basic Security Profile provides digital signatures and
encryption, whereas the Reliable Secure Profile will comply with the WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-SecureConversation specifications. WS-I participants include BEA, IBM,
Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun.
WS-BPEL Extension for People Specification Released
The Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) supports automation of business processes but it doesn't accommodate the involvement of people in business
processes. Several companies, including Adobe, BEA, IBM, Oracle and SAP, collaborated in the development of a BPEL extension (BPEL4People) for describing user interactions in business
processes. BPEL4People supports people initiating processes, managing processes, escalating tasks, establishing deadlines and so on. The implementation of a people activity can be
an inline task or a standalone task defined by the WS-HumanTask specification. BPEL4People is a layer on the BPEL language. Download the
BPEL4People specification.
Microsoft Releases .NET StockTrader to Showcase WCF for SOA
At the 2007 Securities Industry and Financial Markets Technology Management conference, Microsoft announced the release of the
.NET StockTrader application. The .NET
StockTrader is a sample application that's a blueprint for creating service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions using Microsoft platform technologies, such as Windows
Communication Foundation and .NET Framework 3.0. The application is an online stock trading scenario and an accompanying white paper explains performance testing in
distributed computing environments. Because .NET StockTrader uses web services, it also demonstrates interoperability with IBM WebSphere Application Server and the IBM
Trade Performance Benchmark Sample. Download .NET StockTrader.
OASIS Members Form Committee for Symmetric Encryption Key Management Standard
Representatives of Red Hat, the United States Department of Defense, Visa and other organizations comprise the new
OASIS Enterprise Key Management Infrastructure
(EKMI) Technical Committee. The EKMI TC is developing a standard Web services protocol for communication between client applications and network-based servers. The
royalty-free protocol will enables clients to request symmetric key-management services. Beside defining the EKMI specification, the TC will also create a test suite and
implementation, operation and audit guidelines. Participation is open to organizations and individuals.
Tutorials on Rule-Based XML Validation with Schematron
Roger Costello announced new Schematron tutorials that explain how to use rules for validating XML instance
documents. Schematron is an ISO standard used to check data cardinality, perform algorithmic checks and verify data interdependencies. The tutorials are available in an
HTML slide show format and a download is available.
Active Endpoints Announces Public Best Test of ActiveBPEL for People
A leading provider of SOA orchestration solutions has announced the public availability of a new ActiveBPEL-based WS-BPEL product . Active Endpoints, publisher of the
ActiveBPEL product suite, announced a public best test version of ActiveBPEL for People. The new product uses WS-BPEL 2.0 to integrate human interaction with business
process and provides extensions for building custom workflows and workflow interfaces. ActiveBPEL
for People public beta registration.
JustSystems Webinar to Discuss Word Processing to XML Migration
A JustSystems webinar discussed the migration from word processing content creation to structured authoring using XML. The presenters were Rizwan Virk of CambridgeDocs and Jeff Deskins
of JustSystems. The webinar ran 2 August 2007.
OASIS Offers Security Standards Webinars
Starting July 9, 2007, OASIS hosted a series of security standards webinars that covered
SAML, XACML, SPML and DSS. The six free webinars discussed access control, authentication, digital signatures, encryption, and provisioning.
SOA Project Completion in 3-6 Months Reported by Evans Data Survey
A survey by Evans Data Corporation reported SOA project productivity improvements. About 40% of developers complete SOA development within 3 months and 60% complete
SOA projects within 6 months. The survey found that over the
previous two years, the number of companies with 40 web services in production has doubled. It also the number using .NET for SOA projects and the number using Java is
about equal and half of web services developers are using or planning to use AJAX.
Google Retires SOAP API for Search Services
Google is retiring its web services API based on SOAP. Developers who already have
SOAP Search API keys are not affected but Google has stopped issuing new API keys. Google suggests the AJAX Search API may be a better choice, in part because it supports
video, maps and blog search results.
Oracle Application Server Sets Record for Java Application Server Performance
Oracle Corporation announced the combination of Oracle ® Application Server 10g Release 3 and Oracle 10g Database set a new record for performance on the
SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark. Oracle Application Server, a component of
Oracle Fusion Middleware, achieved a world record performance of 6812.79 JOPS@Standard (jAppServer Operations Per Second). For the benchmark, the database server ran on
an HP Integrity server with 32 dual-core Intel Itanium processors. Oracle Application Server, a grid-ready application server, ran on 11 HP Integrity rx3600 servers with
2 dual-core Itanium processors. The operating system for all servers was HP-UX 11i v2.
IBM Web 2.0 Technology to Power AccuWeather Mashups
AccuWeather, Inc. announced it will soon launch a new subscription service that will use IBM QEDWiki Web
2.0 technology. IBM's QEDWiki will enable professionals to create mashups that combine AccuWeather weather information with enterprise data and other information sources.
The new AccuWeather subscription service will include severe weather alerts, tropical and marine forecasts, local storm reports and Doppler radar reports. AccuWeather
provides content to more than 22,000 web sites.
TIBCO Announces Real-Time AJAX Messaging Service
TIBCO announced a new product, TIBCO Ajax Message Service, that will push live
data and events from servers to AJAX applications, Web pages and other software. TIBCO has licensed the Lightstreamer engine as the core for TIBCO Ajax Message Service.
Lightstreamer will enable TIBCO Ajax Message Service to stream data and events to clients over firewall-friendly HTTP networks. The new product will also work with
TIBCO's GUI toolkit.
WS-BPEL 2.0 Announced as OASIS Standard
OASIS members approved the the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) version 2.0 specification as an OASIS standard. The XML-based
WS-BPEL 2.0 grammar describes the interactions between business partners based on using Web
services interfaces. It also describes the behavior of business processes and how a process coordinates service interactions between partners. WS-BPEL is a successor to
earlier languages such as IBM WSFL and Microsoft XLANG. It is the product of a collaboration among 37 organizations, including Adobe, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and
Sun Microsystems.
Ipedo Announces Web Services Enhancements
Ipedo announced several enhancements to its Enterprise Integration Information (EII) server to boost its capabilities for SOA deployment. The enhancements to
Ipedo XIP include dual caching (relational or XML0, web services table metadata, join hints
for web services, one click publishing and XQuery for SOA. Ipedo also announced it has joined the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization.
Convergin and BEA Partner to Deliver Telecomm SOA
BEA Systems and Convergin have created a partnership to integrate BEA WebLogic SIP Server with Convergin
Accolade Wireless Convergence Server (WCS). BEA WebLogic SIP Server is the
first Java EE-SIP-IMS application server. BEA and Convergin expect the combination of the two servers will "help network operators to make the IMS Services Layer, based
on Telecom SOA principles, a reality" according to Nenjamin Renaud, Senior Director, BEA Systems. BEA WebLogic SIP Server and BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper are parts of
the SIP BEA WebLogic SIP Communication platform family designed to converge voice and data services.
Expedia Selects Progress Sonic Messaging Software
Expedia, Inc. has selected Progress Sonic messaging software for its
reservation system. Expedia will use a Sonic messaging backbone to enable travelers to book hotel and airline reservations, vacation packages, car rentals, destination
packages and cruises. Progress's Sonic products include SonicMQ and Sonic ESB, which implements web services standards and includes an Eclipse-based SOA toolkit.
Oracle Releases Identity Management Solution
Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-on Suite. A component of Oracle Identity Management,
the Suite provides password management and access control using a single sign-on for a variety of Oracle products, including Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle Siebel
applications. Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Database. It provides an security infrastructure for Oracle Fusion Middleware and supports XACML, SAML and Web services
security-related specifications.
TIBCO Partners with AmberPoint for SOA Governance and R&D
TIBCO Software and AmberPoint Software have collaborated on SOA governance technology and
the result is TIBCO ActiveMatrix Policy Manager. It's a standards-based policy solution that leverages
AmberPoint SOA governance runtime technology. The ActiveMatrix Policy Manager enables users to declare and enforce policies across services hosted or mediated by the
TIBCO ActiveMatrix platform. The companies also announced an ongoing collaboration on SOA research and development.
Update to FioranoMQ Boosts Performance
Fiorano Software announced the release of FioranoMQ 2006 SP3, which reportedly increases publish-subscribe
application performance by 20%. FioranoMQ 2006 SP3 also includes improvements in flow control, diagnostics, and new JMX APIs for monitoring server health. Atul Saini, CEO
of Fiorano said "With this latest release, FioranoMQ now performs up to ten times faster than it’s closest competitors, including IBM and TIBCO, for a vast number of
publish/subscribe applications in Telecommunications, Financial Services and other key application areas".
Business Intelligence to Drive SOA Adoption
A Ventana Research survey found that a large majority of respondents are planning to adopt SOA technology for business intelligence (BI). 81% expect to deploy
BI services within the next year. More than half plan to deploy query or report processing services and back-end data services.
Intalio Releases Open Source Workflow Framework
Intalio, a leading BPMS company, announced the release of the
Tempo workflow framework under an open
source (Eclipse) license. Tempo provides the first implementation of the BPEL4People specification pioneered by IBM and SAP. Intalio developed Temp to conform to the BPEL
2.0 specification and provide management services through a Web services (WSDL) interface. Tempo is one of three components of Intalio|BPMS that are available with an
Eclipse Foundation or Apache Software Foundation license.
Oracle, CA, Sun and Novell Partner on Identity Governance Framework
Oracle announced it is development a group of specifications for managing identities. The Identity Governance Framework will help control and monitor the disposition of
sensitive and confidential information within computer systems. CA, Novell and Sun will help Oracle develop the full specifications.
HP India to Host One of Five SOA Competency Centers
Hewlett Packard has announced a $500 million investment to establish an SOA Competency
Center in Bangalore, India. The new center will have 120 employees and will be one of five center worldwide. Other HP SOA Competency Centers are located in
California, Singapore, France and Japan. G. N. Shrinivas, head of the Bangalore SOA Competency Center, said "SOA applications are the emerging technology and the India
center will be the next generation data center”.
EMC to Offer OEM Version of Documentum to ISVs
EMC Corporation announced that Documentum will be available with an OEM license to
independent software vendors (ISVs). Documentum is a leading content management system that offers a Java development model. The OEM version will enable ISVs to embed
Documentum in their applications without a loss of functionality or features. Documentum OEM Edition includes a preconfigured version of EMC
Documentum Content Server and a silent installer for embedding it into the host application.
W3C Publishes Recommendations for XSLT 2.0, XQuery, XPath 2.0
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced XML Query 1.0, XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0 and supporting documents have advanced to Proposed
Recommendation status. A period for public comment on the specifications will run until December 31, 2006. The announcement covers eight documents related to XQuery,
XPath and XSLT. The W3C also released the Last Call Working Draft of Web Services Policy 1.5, with a public comment period ending January 12, 2007.
XQuery.com Debuts
DataDirect Technologies launched the XQuery.com
portal to provide a focal point for XQuery developers. The portal includes white papers, analyst reports, webinars, video demonstrations and a Developer Zone with
tutorials. The site includes products and tools for download and technical information for developers using XQuery and XQJ, the XQuery API for Java.
Proto Software Releases Developer Toolkit
Proto Software announced the release of Proto Individual, a toolkit that enable single developers to
create custom applications by integrating local files, desktop software and web services. Proto includes a visual environment for non-programmers that supports
drag-and-drop development. It also provides tight integration with Adobe Flash, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, Microsoft Excel, ODBC, web services and Bloomberg
Professional Service. Proto Individual is free for non-commercial use.
Intalio Releases Performance Benchmark Results for Real-Time Business Process Execution
Intalio, Inc. released the results of performance benchmarks for its flagship
Intalio|BPMS product. It also announced a separate benchmark for the timing of web services calls through an embedded service bus. On a dual Xeon machine,
Intalio|BPMS executed over 17 million transient BPEL processes in 24 hours and 3.5 million persistent processes in the same time frame. Intalio CEO Ismael Ghalimi
said "These results make us confident that real-time processes can be deployed on top of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) today without significant impact in
terms of performance". Intalio|BPMS is an open source product that includes Intalio|Designer, Intalio|Server and Intalio|Workflow.
JBoss Extends Middleware with Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
Red Hat's JBoss division introduced JBoss ESB, a new component of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite (JEMS).
JEMS is Red Hat's solution for developers looking for service-oriented architecture (SOA) tools for the Linux platform. JBoss ESB was built on technology acquired
with the Rosetta ESB, which has been in use for a Canadian insurance company. It works with the JBoss business rules engine and messaging products. JBoss is the
latest of a series of open source ESB offerings, including the Mule project, the ServiceMix ESB, the Celtix project and the Synapse project.
Novell Releases Mono 1.2.1
Novell released Mono 1.2.1, an update to the Mono 1.2 implementation of the .NET framework. Mono 1.2 provides an
open source implementation of the ECMA 334 (CLI) and 335 (C#) standards, with .NET Framework 1.1 compatibility. Version 1.2.1 adds updates to bring web services,
ASP.NET and ADO.NET closer to .NET 2.0 APIs. Mono is available for 32-bit systems (x86, PowerPC, ARM, IBM s390, Sun SPARC) and 64-bit systems (x86-64, IBM s390x,
Itanium IA64).
Altova Announces New Version of XML Tools
Altova announced an XML tools product line for 2007 that includes updated versions of XMLSpy, MapForce, StyleVision,
and the AltovaXML processor. The company also announced a free license for Altova DatabaseSpy for purchasers of Altova XML Suite 2007. XMLSpy 2007 includes a
redesigned graphical WSDL editor. MapForce 2007 has the ability to use Web services as sources, targets, or functions in data integration projects and SemanticWorks
2007 adds new features to accelerate ontology development.
Technology Panel Discusses Oracle Fusion Applications Strategy
The Register (UK) reports the Reg Technology Panel has surveyed customers
about the Oracle Fusion Application Strategy. The 321 respondents to the online questionnaire included Oracle E-Business, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel users. 15
per cent of respondents were convinced the Fusion strategy will protect their software investment and 27 per cent have not formed an opinion.
W3C Releases XML Schema Test Suite Update
Henry S. Thompson of the W3C XML Schema Working Group and the University of Edinburgh reports an update to the
XML Schema Test Suite is now available. Henry acknowledged contributions
from Sun, Microsoft and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology have brought the test suite to a total of 40,000 tests and associated metadata. Henry S.
Thompson and Oriol Carbo of the University of Edinburgh conducted the initial round of testing for XML Schema 1.0 in 2002.
Composite Information Server Garners Partner Support
Composite Software announced the Composite
Information Server (CIS) 4.0 has enjoyed support among the community of SOA vendors and implementation firms. Composite provides tools and pre-built data services
for packaged applications that provide a jump start for SOA implementation. The Composite Information Server includes intelligent query optimization technology,
caching support, a metadata repository and multiple security solutions. The metadata functionality enables users to import model from modeling products such as ERWin.
BMC Software includes Composite Information Server in BMC Atrium and Cognos, Informatica and other companies embed Composite's technology.
Upswing in Adoption of DataDirect Shadow for SOA and Mainframe Integration
DataDirect Technologies announced an increase in customers using its software to enable mainframe applications to consume Web services. The Shadow z/Services™ WsC Web
Services Consumption tool is included in the
DataDirect Shadow RTE™ mainframe integration suite. The DataDirect Shadow product provides bi-directional support (Web services consumer and provider) for
mainframes and supports Web services security standards.
