August 23, 2005

Yesterday, BEA Systems said it is upgrading its WebLogic Integration software to better focus on connecting and integrating B2B (business-to-business) systems, data and their various complex applications.

As part of the update, the company has assembled a suite of products designed to help enterprises better streamline their processes and leverage their corporate information assets. Nearly two years worth of enhancements went into the update, said Tony de la Lama, BEA's vice president for integration products.

Topping the list of new features in the suite is support for the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services , or BPEL4WS. Created by BEA, Microsoft and IBM , the standards-based language lets firms use Web services to describe business practices.

The updated suite, which allows BEA to compete with Microsoft's BizTalk 2004 as well as Oracle's BPEL Manager, is designed to cover the entire spectrum of process-based integration, including process management, data transformation, connectivity, developer productivity and administration.

Essentially, the update is designed to help developers more easily create interfaces for BPEL processes. With the new version of WebLogic Integration, enterprise developers now can develop business processes in WebLogic and export them as BPEL processes; likewise, BPEL processes developed in other tools can be imported into WebLogic Integration.

BEA's updated integration tool includes better native connectivity with several mainstream enterprise systems, including IBM's WebSphereMQ and Tibco Rendezvous. The software also now offers compatibility with HP OverView and BMC Business Services Management consoles.

Already shipping, BEA's WebLogic Integration 8.5 costs US$62,000 per CPU. The price includes the required WebLogic Server.

Earlier this month, BEA introduced WebLogic Server 9.0, a cluster-based application designed to help minimize system downtime . Despite an 18 percent surge in licensing profits over the previous year, BEA stock fell 4 percent last week on news it failed to meet analyst expectations.

BEA CEO Alfred Chaung pointed to the company's successful WebLogic Server as contributing to increasing licensing profits.

Source: SNPX.com