Westbridge Technology Releases XML Message Server 3.0 for Web Services Management

Westbridge Technology Establishes Web Services Management Leadership with Release of XML Message Server 3.0

Enhancements Simplify Management and Security of XML Web Services and Services-Oriented Architectures

Mountain View, CA. October 13, 2003.

Westbridge Technology today announced the release of Westbridge XML Message Server (XMS) 3.0. With XMS 3.0, Westbridge addressed customer requests in deploying XML Web Services and Services-Oriented Architectures (SOA) by building a complete end-to-end Web Services Management (WSM) solution focused on the security and management of Web Services.

Westbridge XMS 3.0 includes major enhancements that provide advanced Web Services Management (WSM) capabilities. XMS 3.0 is the premier implementation of the Service Views capability. Service Views enable customers to achieve the reusability and interface control that is central to Services-Oriented Architectures. Additional capabilities include SmartParser performance improvements, auto-validation of messages, "Getting Started" productivity wizards, integration with additional existing infrastructure, team administration enhancements and dynamic routing.

"Our product development process works in lock step with our customer's Web Services needs," said Kerry Champion, president and founder of Westbridge Technology. "Our customers were first concerned about securing their Web Services and leveraging their existing infrastructure for securing the special requirements of Web Services. For 2.0 we addressed many of their scalability and Web Services Management (WSM) needs and added WS-Security and SAML support. XMS 3.0 caps a year long effort in working with customers to provide leading edge WSM capabilities that leapfrog the competition."

Service Views Critical to SOA

Service Views has been enhanced to enable organizations to easily manage, control and improve their XML and Web Services interfaces throughout the organization saving them significant money, time and resources for development and maintenance. Service Views are virtual services composed from one or many different services that can be "mixed and matched and modified" according to the administrator. Service Views serve as the logical control point for security, interoperability, monitoring and business rule enforcement.

Service Views are easy-to-create and highly flexible, enabling administrators to instantly "upgrade" any web service to be standards compliant and interoperable with any Service Consumer. For instance, an XML interface can be upgraded to be SOAP interface and be able to talk to SOAP clients. Furthermore, any interface, including legacy services, can be instantly upgraded to be compliant with WS-Security or SAML, XML Encryption, XML Signature, JMS, HTTPS, as well as a number of other standards. No coding or integration is required saving developers' time and resources and insulating companies from changing standards.

In addition, a Web Service can have multiple Service Views be published, each with their own distinct security, data and business rules. XMS 3.0 provides the necessary mapping and "impedance matching." For example, one financial services customer is using Service Views to seamlessly interoperate with multiple partners who have different access rights, policies and standards. With XMS 3.0, any service can support any combination of standards, giving customers seamless partner and EAI connections.

"The essence of a successful Services-Oriented Architecture is a layer of abstraction that masks the complexity of the technology from the user, while at the same time providing robust business-oriented Web Services," said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst at ZapThink, LLC. "The Service Views that Westbridge XMS offers enable this abstraction layer in a simple, powerful manner that differentiates Westbridge's complete management solution from the pack."

SmartParser Improves XML Processing

Westbridge XMS 3.0 also introduces SmartParser, a series of performance improvements that provide over 10x improvement for some XML intensive operations. "It's well known that XML can be verbose, so we have made a number of significant improvements to intelligently and efficiently handle the message stream," said Dr. Matthew Fuchs, Member of Technical Staff at Westbridge and one of the original members of the XML and XML Schema SIGs at W3C. Such patent-pending improvements are related to handling XML in stream format, parsing XML intelligently according to the particular rules required and caching. Westbridge provides "software acceleration" that work with optional hardware acceleration products for very high performance and scalability.

Automatic Enforcement of Message Integrity

Autovalidation is a key capability that greatly eases the cost of development as well as increases the integrity of the message stream. The XMS can automatically generate XML schemas from the WSDL of services and enforce the integrity of each message. Administrators need not continue to create and maintain XML schemas. The XMS takes care of generating all the schemas and enforcing them on the message stream.

Getting Started - Fast Path to Productivity

Westbridge has added a wizard-driven getting started process as part of a "Self-Start" productivity initiative. With easy-to-read documentation, customers and partners can train themselves on the product and begin installing, configuring and implementing policies within hours. Customers have been able to deploy solutions in production from start to finish in just days.

Flexibility and Control

Other critical additions to XMS 3.0 include support for multiple identity management vendors as well as dynamic routing. Based on the flexible Rule Execution Engine, routing can be based on a number of combination of factors including content, source, destination, size of message, time of day, SLA thresholds, etc. Customers have been using dynamic routing for traffic coordination purposes, failover as well as to create "honeypots" to trap malicious users and messages.

About Westbridge Technology

Westbridge Technology provides Web Services Management (WSM) solutions that enable enterprises to secure and manage XML Web Services networks. The company's flagship product, the Westbridge XML Message Server (XMS) enables IT organizations to seamlessly connect, secure and manage XML Web Services networks. The Westbridge XMS is deployed by dozens of Global 1000 corporations and public sector institutions. For more information, please visit http://www.westbridgetech.com.

Contacts

Andrew Yang
Westbridge Technology
Tel: +1 650-210-0702
andy@westbridgetech.com

Kevin Kempskie
Voce Communications
For Westbridge Technology
Tel: +1 617-421-9607
kkempskie@vocepr.com

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.

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With XMS 3.0, Westbridge addressed customer requests in deploying XML Web Services and Services-Oriented Architectures (SOA) by building a complete end-to-end Web Services Management (WSM) solution focused on the security and management of Web Services. Westbridge XMS 3.0 includes major enhancements that provide advanced Web Services Management (WSM) capabilities. XMS 3.0 is the premier implementation of the Service Views capability. Service Views enable customers to achieve the reusability and interface control that is central to Services-Oriented Architectures. Additional capabilities include SmartParser performance improvements, auto-validation of messages, "Getting Started" productivity wizards, integration with additional existing infrastructure, team administration enhancements and dynamic routing. "Our product development process works in lock step with our customer's Web Services needs," said Kerry Champion, president and founder of Westbridge Technology. "Our customers were first concerned about securing their Web Services and leveraging their existing infrastructure for securing the special requirements of Web Services. For 2.0 we addressed many of their scalability and Web Services Management (WSM) needs and added WS-Security and SAML support. XMS 3.0 caps a year long effort in working with customers to provide leading edge WSM capabilities that leapfrog the competition." Service Views Critical to SOA Service Views has been enhanced to enable organizations to easily manage, control and improve their XML and Web Services interfaces throughout the organization saving them significant money, time and resources for development and maintenance. Service Views are virtual services composed from one or many different services that can be "mixed and matched and modified" according to the administrator. Service Views serve as the logical control point for security, interoperability, monitoring and business rule enforcement. Service Views are easy-to-create and highly flexible, enabling administrators to instantly "upgrade" any web service to be standards compliant and interoperable with any Service Consumer. For instance, an XML interface can be upgraded to be SOAP interface and be able to talk to SOAP clients. Furthermore, any interface, including legacy services, can be instantly upgraded to be compliant with WS-Security or SAML, XML Encryption, XML Signature, JMS, HTTPS, as well as a number of other standards. No coding or integration is required saving developers' time and resources and insulating companies from changing standards. In addition, a Web Service can have multiple Service Views be published, each with their own distinct security, data and business rules. XMS 3.0 provides the necessary mapping and "impedance matching." For example, one financial services customer is using Service Views to seamlessly interoperate with multiple partners who have different access rights, policies and standards. With XMS 3.0, any service can support any combination of standards, giving customers seamless partner and EAI connections. "The essence of a successful Services-Oriented Architecture is a layer of abstraction that masks the complexity of the technology from the user, while at the same time providing robust business-oriented Web Services," said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst at ZapThink, LLC. "The Service Views that Westbridge XMS offers enable this abstraction layer in a simple, powerful manner that differentiates Westbridge's complete management solution from the pack." SmartParser Improves XML Processing Westbridge XMS 3.0 also introduces SmartParser, a series of performance improvements that provide over 10x improvement for some XML intensive operations. "It's well known that XML can be verbose, so we have made a number of significant improvements to intelligently and efficiently handle the message stream," said Dr. Matthew Fuchs, Member of Technical Staff at Westbridge and one of the original members of the XML and XML Schema SIGs at W3C. Such patent-pending improvements are related to handling XML in stream format, parsing XML intelligently according to the particular rules required and caching. Westbridge provides "software acceleration" that work with optional hardware acceleration products for very high performance and scalability. Automatic Enforcement of Message Integrity Autovalidation is a key capability that greatly eases the cost of development as well as increases the integrity of the message stream. The XMS can automatically generate XML schemas from the WSDL of services and enforce the integrity of each message. Administrators need not continue to create and maintain XML schemas. The XMS takes care of generating all the schemas and enforcing them on the message stream. Getting Started - Fast Path to Productivity Westbridge has added a wizard-driven getting started process as part of a "Self-Start" productivity initiative. With easy-to-read documentation, customers and partners can train themselves on the product and begin installing, configuring and implementing policies within hours. Customers have been able to deploy solutions in production from start to finish in just days. Flexibility and Control Other critical additions to XMS 3.0 include support for multiple identity management vendors as well as dynamic routing. Based on the flexible Rule Execution Engine, routing can be based on a number of combination of factors including content, source, destination, size of message, time of day, SLA thresholds, etc. Customers have been using dynamic routing for traffic coordination purposes, failover as well as to create "honeypots" to trap malicious users and messages. About Westbridge Technology Westbridge Technology provides Web Services Management (WSM) solutions that enable enterprises to secure and manage XML Web Services networks. The company's flagship product, the Westbridge XML Message Server (XMS) enables IT organizations to seamlessly connect, secure and manage XML Web Services networks. The Westbridge XMS is deployed by dozens of Global 1000 corporations and public sector institutions. For more information, please visit http://www.westbridgetech.com. Contacts Andrew Yang Westbridge Technology Tel: +1 650-210-0702 andy@westbridgetech.com Kevin Kempskie Voce Communications For Westbridge Technology Tel: +1 617-421-9607 kkempskie@vocepr.com Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.