IONA Puts Web Development in Orbix
IONA Technologies has announced a new version of OrbixWeb 3 as part of the latest release of its Orbix application integration and e-business development product family. Improvements and additional features in the new release include OpenVMS platform support, better scalability, greater application integration flexibility and compatibility with IONA’s iPortal Suite.
IONA’s Orbix 3 products include Orbix 3 and OrbixWeb development and deployment environments for C++ and Java, and OrbixTalk, an enterprise messaging solution with fault-tolerant publish and subscribe capabilities. The product suite also includes OrbixTrader for directory services, OrbixNotification messaging solutions and OrbixSecurity. In addition, Orbix 3 fulfills the traditional role of an Object Request Broker and TP monitor and adds new capabilities appropriate for component infrastructures.
The latest release of Orbix 3 supports new versions of the IBM’s AIX and Sun’s Solaris operating systems. So far, support for AS/400, first offered last year, is only provided with OrbixWeb. According to Ronan Bradley, VP of product management at IONA, IONA chose to offer only this product on AS/400 because of IBM’s growing emphasis on developing Java capability for the platform. He said the company believed OrbixWeb would be the most compatible and potentially successful product among AS/400 users.
“We try and support many varied platforms and we pick and choose which platforms really require which functions,” Bradley says. “That way, the customers can take advantage of new technology while preserving their existing investments. We believe in leveraging the customers’ (expertise) as well as their legacy systems.”
All products in the Orbix 3 software suite are CORBA-based technologies. They support Windows NT, Unix and OS/390, in addition to those already mentioned, and are compatible with C++, Java, COBOL and PL/I development languages.
Bradley says the newest product upgrades were added as a response to increasing customer demand for a variety of integration and development solutions. The third release of Orbix is designed to meet the IT needs of organizations taking on e-business initiatives. A central aspect in responding to those demands and making its software e-business compatible had to do with making it a standards-based solution. The new products are compatible with standard J2EE. Bradley says being CORBA-based is one of the key distinguishing features of the Orbix 3 series.
“What we provide is a single, coherent infrastructure,” he explains. “There isn’t anybody that has that same range (in the CORBA space).”
Being standards-based would be especially important to an AS/400 user, according to Bradley, because it allows easier integration between their existing applications and their e-business initiatives, including the Java development capability provided by OrbixWeb.
“What they’d be using our technology to do is link to those other applications,” he says.
IONA offers a comprehensive training and consulting services program to assist companies looking to implement Orbix 3 technology.
Related Editorial:
Iona Brings Component-Based Development to AS/400Related Information:
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