| Object-Oriented Middleware |
| The Tool |
Features and Claims |
The Buzz |
The Cost |
| Borland VisiBroker 6 |
This CORBA 2.6–compliant tool is fully backward compatible with
older ORBs. Offers HTTP-to-IIOP request, RMI-over-IIOP and IDL-to-Java
translation. Executes on 7 different OSes, and includes VisiNotify (multiple
complex message–channel support) and Visi-Transact (multithreaded
ORB support with connection management, load balancing and database pooling). |
Acquired when Borland was attempting to reinvent itself as an enterprise
object company, VisiBroker seems to be receiving less attention these days
than the other products in the Borland family. Still, this solution is
mature, stable and in use for large, mission-critical industry segments
such as finance and telecommunications. |
Development license is $2,500 per node; deployment license, $2,500 per
CPU. |
| Iona Orbix 6.1 |
Offers native .NET access to CORBA systems, Single Sign-on
security, a managementarchitecture for improved enterprise collaboration,
and high availability, scalability and notification. Includes bidirectional
GIOP, native IBM Tivoli integration, full support on 8 OS platforms and
a 5-year support plan. |
Iona’s Adaptive Runtime Technology (ART) is an impressive,
flexible innovation; it takes a microkernel approach to middleware. Since
its inception, Iona has also been an ardent OMG supporter and standards
promoter, and is active in the submission of new OMG RFPs. |
Development kits cost $5,000 per seat; runtime costs range
from $10,000–$20,000 per CPU. |
| JacORB 2.2 |
You get asynchronous method invocations, an extensible transport
framework, the OMG Notification and Event service, the CORBA 2.3 code set
and HTTP tunneling support, interface repository and IDL and Java source
for all CORBA/COSS interfaces. |
Billed as the “free Java implementation of the OMG’s
CORBA standard.” Useful for benchmarking standards-compliance from
commercial vendors, but consequently lacks commercial extensions such as
the monitoring and security capabilities that are so critical in the enterprise. |
Free/Open source |
| Orbacus 4.2 |
CORBA 3.0 compliant, IPv6 support, C++ and JDK compiler
support on 10 OS platforms, active developer community support. |
Iona’s low-cost alternative to the many free, open-source
OMG standard-compliant CORBA ORBs. Designed primarily for developers geared
toward CORBA services, with the ability to painlessly upsize to the Orbix
platform as business needs justify the investment. |
Developer editions start at $99. |
| OrBit2 |
This CORBA 2.4–compliant ORB features C, C++, Lisp,
Pascal, Perl, Python, Ruby and TCL, and supports POA, DII, DSI, TypeCode,
Any, IR and IIOP. |
While slightly behind the latest standards curve, this C-based
ORB nonetheless provides open source adherents numerous bindings to popular
programming and scripting languages. Useful for highly diverse Unix-oriented
computing environments. |
Free/Open source |
| PrismTech OpenFusion TAO and JacORB CORBA Enterprise ORBs |
TAO is CORBA 2.6 compliant and supports a variety of threading
models, pluggable protocols (including IIOP, UIOP, SHMIOP, SSLIOP, DIOP),
interface and implementation repositories, real-time CORBA and CORBA messaging.
Includes full source code. |
PrismTech’s offerings are commercial-grade variants
of open source products such as JacORB. The commercial improvements are
substantial and the pricing model varies with the size and complexity of
deployments. |
Development and runtime licenses are free. Annual support
and maintenance cost depends on support level, team size and annual deployments. |
| Voyager ORB |
Offers dynamic aggregation, SOAP and WSDL support, naming
services through a single API (including RMI naming and JNDI), universal
gateway bridges to non-Voyager protocols, firewall tunneling, and pluggable
SSL socket factories with support for PHAOS and RSA toolkits. |
The notable differentiator for apps using Recursion’s
ORB is its fast development and deployment cycle due to the elimination
of the time-consuming, manual chores many traditional ORBs require. Voyager’s
best features: mobility, agent technology and ultralight clients. |
$500–$1,500 per developer, plus a per-server charge,
depending on modules bought. Volume discounts available. |
| |
| Message-Oriented Middleware |
| The Tool |
Features and Claims |
The Buzz |
The Cost |
| ArjunaMS 4.0 |
This Java-built JMS messaging platform includes a JTA-compliant
transaction manager, and an optimized HTTP-based transport with support
for SSL encryption and authenticated proxy servers. It uses a server-less
transport, multicast and peer-to-peer TCP/IP connections for improved performance
and scalability. |
Enterprise architects seeking a robust, low-cost license
JMS solution should take a closer look at Arjuna’s novel peer-to-peer
messaging approach. The company’s remote management API is based
on industry-standard JMX and supports JAAS-based user/group security management. |
$2,000 per server CPU. |
| BEA MessageQ |
Integrates with BEA Tuxedo and X/Open ATMI compatible apps,
BEA WebLogic and Java apps, IBM MQ Series, IBM CICS/ESA and IMS/ESA. Supports
both peer-to-peer and client/server messaging, and can service Field Manipulation
Language (FML)—enables applications that add metadata to messages
to provide context to the message content. |
BMQ’s most welcome distinction is the ability to perform
name-to-queue address translations at perform name-to-queue address translations
at runtime, a capability BEA calls “location independence.” This
eliminates app recoding whenever message workflow configurations are changed,
while maintaining system and application administrators’ sanity. |
Starts at $3,750 per server. |
| IBM WebSphere MQ |
Supports both J2EE and MS.NET environments via the MQ Interface
API. JMS 1.1–compliant, can deliver XML and SOAP message, SSL support,
and can be deployed on more than 35 platforms. |
This Master of MOM, formerly known as MQSeries, helped define
the MOM concept over a decade ago. Since then, it has been deployed in
more than 10,000 customer installations worldwide. IBM also owns a majority
of MOM IP, with more than 120 patents, ensuring its longevity. |
Starts at $5,574 (SRP) per processor on distributed platforms. |
| InteBroker/OSMQ |
This tool offers 100% Java 2–compliant, self-monitoring
load-balancing that eliminates memory over commitment. You get high-performance
FIFO memory queues, IP multi-casting and multicast naming service support. |
MQue, the company responsible for the commercial version
of InteBroker, has also released an open source version that lacks the
GUI-based interface. Mainly targeted at Java developers needing simple
JMS queuing systems. |
Single commercial license is $795. |
| MSMQ 2.0 |
Comes with full COM support and centralized systems management.
Interoperates with IBM’s MQSeries and is integrated with Microsoft
Transaction Server, Internet Information Server, Cluster Servers and SNA
Server. |
For enterprises fully committed to the Microsoft computing
platform, MSMQ is an obvious choice for a 100% Microsoft-based implementation. |
Included with Microsoft NT–based operating systems. |
| my-Channels Nirvana |
J2ME MIDP 1.0/MIDP 2.0/IMP, Personal Java, Win32 (Sun +
Microsoft JVM), Linux, Solaris, AIX, Applets (Java Plugin + Microsoft JVM),
JavaScript, C++, ActiveX/.NET, SOAP, and Microsoft Excel client support.
Also supports TCP sockets, SSL sockets (including client authentication)
and HTTP/HTTPS protocols. |
While Nirvana doesn’t share the other MOM vendors’ level
of market awareness, the product still packs a punch with its server-side
scripting and filtering, dynamic configuration management and a rich administration
API. The company has 15 customers, including Deutsche Bank’s online
Autobahn service. |
JMS only: $2,500 per server; Enterprise: $40,000 for 50
topics. |
| SonicMQ |
Offers support for XML, JMS, JNDI, JMX, HTTP, and SOAP,
J2EE 1.4 with JMS 1.1 compatibility, immediate failover with real-time
replication between active and standby brokers. Dynamic Routing Architecture
selects the most effective message path and provides encryption support
for HTTPS, SSL, digital certificates, pluggable cipher suites and embedded
RSA B-Safe. |
Sonic Software has created one of the most popular (and
expensive) JMS-compliant messaging platforms, and continues to innovate
and successfully position itself in the rapidly expanding SOA marketplace. |
Enterprise Edition is $10,000 per CPU per server deployment
machine. No charge for clients. |
Previous Page |
1
|
2
