Paul Maurer

Adeptia has released the latest version of its BPM server. The Adeptia BPM server is another entry in the fast-growing market for Business Process Management Tools. People unfamiliar with Business Process Management servers can think of them as replacing the typical maintenance-heavy point-to-point systems integrations that let data flow through corporate machinery. The business process engine executes a well-defined business process and shepherds information through those complex multistep processes. I've heard BPM characterized as Enterprise Application Integration on steroids, but as Adeptia's product will show, it's really much more. Adeptia's BPM Server lets users gradually build up processes by defining simple discrete activities. Activities are then combined into tasks that are executed by the BPM Server. The BPM server can be controlled from its browser-en... (more)

Wisiba Web Service Management from Itellix

There's a phenomenon I've witnessed again and again in my years building systems. I call it "Guerilla IT." Listen to my description and see if you've witnessed it inside your organization. You are an IT professional serving your constituency. They are satisfied with your support of their business, but there are a few projects that are lower priority and small enough to fly under your radar. They implement a little "solution" themselves to help get their work done. They are proud of the quick, simple, and cost-effective solution and innocently wonder, "Why can't they get things d... (more)

Above All Studio 2.0

Much has been written recently about the business-to-business aspects of Web services, but what about the region between the Web service and the desktop? Above All Software lays claim to this "last mile" by providing a platform for delivering composite applications. Gartner defines a composite application as "a software assembly that implements one business function (one step) and where the component parts are heterogeneous in their information architecture." I prefer to define a composite application as one that does not manage any data of its own, but brings together data from... (more)

Pantero 1.3 Shared Data Services

The moniker "Shared Data Services" has a sexy ring to it, and in a market where service-oriented architecture is the topic du jour, you may be tempted to roll your eyes... but don't. Pantero targets an important segment where business spends $80 billion annually on integration and another $19 billion on manual reconciliation. Shared Data Services? What are shared data services? A quick tour through the organic growth of Web services at a firm would be a good illustration. Chances are you have dipped your toe into Web services when your company needed to expose data to the outside... (more)

Product Review — ActiveBPEL 2.0 from Active Endpoints Excels at BPEL

Business process execution Language support or BPEL is at the top of every enterprise SOA punch list. It's an XML-based language designed to support long-running complex business transactions in the form of orchestrated Web Service interactions. Like most XML formats, you wouldn't want to construct and debug a process of any complexity by hand and an "engine" is required to recognize and execute BPEL. This is where the tool vendors come in and Active Endpoints, Inc. has a design tool and engine product combination that we'll cover in this review. ActiveBPEL Designer The designer ... (more)