BEA showcases new SOA platform in China
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 2/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
BEA Systems attracted more than 3,000 attendees to its first eWorld China Conference in Shanghai in mid-December, where it showcased several new components of its services-oriented architecture (SOA) offering, including the next-generation release of its flagship server product, code-named Diablo.
Diablo is the cornerstone of the upcoming WebLogic 9.0, the next generation of BEA's enterprise application integration (EAI) and business process management (BPM) platform. This release, which is supposed to make it easier for companies to develop SOAs, is scheduled for general release this summer. A downloadable beta version was available at eWorld China, where BEA also unveiled new extensions to BEA Tuxedo, its mainframe connectivity technology.
"Mainframes continue to play a role in providing mission-critical infrastructure for many IT environments, including many data centers in China," says George Gould, BEA's director of product marketing.
Covad Communications, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of integrated voice and communications systems, expects Diablo to enhance the SOA that Covad started building in early 2004. Using WebLogic 8.1 as its SOA foundation, Covad converted pieces of functionality from 67 different applications into application components, or services, that can easily be linked to develop new business processes.
Jeff Davies, Covad's director of software architecture and standards, says these applications "were all originally wired to talk directly with one another, which creates a lot of complexity.
"We're looking forward to Diablo for a number of new features," Davies adds. "Most significant, it will allow us to roll out new versions of software without taking our servers down. This will enable us to keep our customer-facing systems, like order entry, up while we do upgrades. Order entry is the money pipe of the company, so keeping it up maintains the flow. We'll also be able to do upgrades during normal working hours rather than the dead of night, which will greatly improve quality of life for our staff."
