Event
Summary
JuxtaComm Technologies has announced a relationship with
IBM to implement the IBM MQSeries Integrator (MQSI)
as a component of their JuxtaComm Integration Broker
Solution. The vendor claims this will provide a "universal adapter"
capability for both publishing from and subscribing to new and legacy
applications.
The
new feature has two components:
- Pulling
information from the publishing applications and delivering it to the
MQSeries Integrator (via "application extraction adapters")
- Extracting
information from the subscriber MQSeries Integrator queues and delivering
this data to the target (via "application delivery adapters").
According
to Robert Koblovsky, President of JuxtaComm, "By working with IBM, we
can continue to enhance our products with leading-edge technology such
as IBM MQSeries Integrator. IBM is a leader in the delivery of e-business
solutions. Coupled with JuxtaComm Integration Broker, we can deliver the
best of breed solutions to meet the end-to-end e-business requirements
of any organization".
Rob Lamb,
director, business integration at IBM, added "The combination of JuxtaComm's
Integration Broker and the IBM MQSeries Integrator facilitates fast and
easy retrieval of messages, increasing customer satisfaction and ensuring
protection from data loss".
Market
Impact
Integrating
EAI products with IBM MQSeries Integrator (as well as MQSeries
Workflow and the base MQSeries product) seems to be the flavor
of the month for vendors, including Evoke Software, Vitria,
and Extricity. Potential customers will be hard pressed to find
an EAI vendor who does not have an "adapter" for MQSI, or is not currently
developing one. The MQSeries base product is already built into JuxtaComm's
offering, so the feature extension should be fairly straightforward.
Two
of the major advantages to MQSI integration are support for over 35 platforms
(very important in larger shops with legacy applications and systems),
and "once, and once only" message and queuing capabilities, which means
that transactions transferred between systems cannot be duplicated due
to system failures. JuxtaComm's move to further the partnership with IBM
was essential for it to remain competitive. Moving forward, JuxtaComm
is considering adding code to a future release that will make JuxtaComm
Integration Broker act as a "node" in the recently released MQSI Version
2. This would put them on a par with competitors such as New Era
of Networks.
JuxtaComm
has stated that its method of gaining market share in this competitive
and rapidly growing area will involve highlighting the product's ease
of use, ease of maintenance, and superior pricing model.
User
Recommendations
Customers evaluating integration solutions between heterogeneous systems
should take a look at JuxtaComm, along with such major EAI competitors
as Tibco, Mercator and Vitria, and other new entrants
to the field such as Evoke. Most all of the EAI vendors espouse the same
philosophy ("make data integration easier, with faster ROI and less hand
coding"), but each of them takes a slightly different approach to the
problem. Care should be taken to ensure that the vendor's approach fits
the customer need, and doesn't require a great deal of "tweaking".
It
should be noted that JuxtaComm Integration Broker does not require the
use of MQSeries to function. MQSeries Integrator is likely to enter the
equation only if legacy mainframe data is involved, or if there is a need
for asynchronous communication between the different systems.
Also
note that the Transform Engine for JuxtaComm Integration Broker currently
runs on 32-bit Windows platforms only. The vendor is considering the value
of a UNIX port based on customer demand.