Developer Solutions- Hitting the market
STC updates integration tools
Software Technologies Corporation (STC) has added high-level business logic tools and an open message architecture to its redesigned suite of enterprise application integration tools.
Customers and industry analysts generally praised the new suite, called eGate 4.0, but said it isn't a unique or one-stop tool.eGate's distributed Web-based architecture was designed to help companies quickly tie together disparate applications and data sources and integrate them with new e-commerce applications. The upgrade is STC's latest entry in the market for prepackaged enterprise application integration (EAI) tools.
Corporate mergers and acquisitions, increased investment in customer service front ends and the rush to put up e-commerce sites are driving the demand for EAI. EAI was a $312 million market in 1998, and is growing by nearly 100 per cent annually, according to analyst International Data Corp (IDC).
STC has scrapped the hub-and-spoke architecture of its earlier DataGate product and now distributes integration services across the network to help eGate scale with the number of Web transactions.
STC ranks sixth in EAI market share, behind Tibco Software, NEON, Viewlocity, TSI Software and IBM, said IDC.http://www.stc.comDomino, WebSphere integration tightenedMobile access and integration of Lotus Domino and IBM WebSphere were highlighted at the Lotusphere 2000 conference, with Lotus Development also looking to provide links between its Notes platform and Microsoft's surging Outlook Exchange platform.
Lotus has made two additions to the Notes Client family: Mobile Notes and iNotes, both of which focus on mobile users.
Mobile Notes will leverage Mobile Services for Domino to give handheld device and smartphone users access to Domino applications. Handheld device users will be able to synchronise via Extensible Markup Language (XML), eliminating the need for a Notes client. Lotus will use Wireless Markup Language to provide a graphical user interface.iNotes will give browser users offline access to Domino applications via Domino Off Line Services (DOLS), which creates a driver to run Domino applications while disconnected from the network.
The product also contains Access for Microsoft Outlook, giving Outlook users access to Domino infrastructure for collaboration and increased mobility.
When it ships later this year, iNotes will incorporate DOLS; Access for Outlook will be available during the first half of this year.
Lotus and IBM also face the task of merging the Domino and WebSphere server platforms to meet emerging technical and business requirements.
Although the application server functions of the two platforms overlap slightly and will likely continue to do so, IBM and Lotus are evolving to a more integrated programming model and relying on WebSphere to bind collaborative and transactional applications.
The Domino server platform later this year will gain additional WebSphere Java capabilities, such as the ability to call Enterprise JavaBeans components from servlets and agents.
Lotus also demonstrated a pre-beta version of QuickPlace 2.0, its virtual meeting space and project management software, featuring better integration with desktop productivity software.http://www.lotus.comNovell to release Open Source LDAP dev kitInternet infrastructure vendor Novell has announced the release of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Libraries for C software developer kit (SDK) can be expected in March.
Novell claims the new kit will speed up the development of directory-based solutions for the enterprise and the Internet, while making it easier to manage e-business relationships.
The LDAP SDK will be released as part of the Novell Developer Kit (NDK).http://www.novell.com.au