WSO2 Launches Breakthrough Open Source Enterprise Service Bus for Web Services

June 11, 2007; 10:48 AM
WSO2, the open source middleware company, announced today general availability of the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). The XML and Web services-centric, open source WSO2 ESB rewrites the rules for enterprise service bus design, providing an ultra lightweight platform that can route messages with sub-millisecond overhead and can scale to manage thousands of simultaneous connections. The WSO2 ESB 1.0 significantly simplifies the implementation of a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

The WSO2 ESB is the first product to be closely based on the Apache Synapse 1.0 Web service management and integration broker, also being launched today. The Apache Synapse project (http://ws.apache.org/synapse) has built a high-performance, flexible SOA framework around XML and Web services. The Apache Synapse project has released 1.0 of the code base after graduating from the Apache Incubator project at the beginning of the year.

The WSO2 ESB 1.0 extends the Apache Synapse XML router and mediation engine with an integrated registry and simple graphical interface that allows administrators to connect, manage and transform Web service interactions across their networks. The WSO2 ESB can instantly virtualize services, enabling users to route, version, load-balance, log, monitor and manage services without changing their application code.

With its simple Web-based interface, administrators can get the easy-to-use WSO2 ESB up and running in minutes. The WSO2 ESB’s flexible deployment options support numerous enterprise architectures as well as providing a secure gateway to partners over the Internet.

“Traditionally, ESBs have been architected to support applications within an Intranet, and have relied on an additional layer of software to support Web services—adding to their size and complexity in the process,” said Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO of WSO2. “By taking an entirely fresh, ground-up approach to the design of our WSO2 ESB, we are able to offer a lightweight and highly easy-to-use platform for mediating Web services, which sets a new standard for performance and interoperability across the Web.”

Key features of the WSO2 ESB 1.0 include:

• The non-blocking http/s transport permits ultra-fast execution and support for large numbers of connections. Because the WSO2 ESB automatically optimizes the parsing of messages, it can perform virtualization and routing on standard 1kb in/1kb out interactions with less than a third of a millisecond overhead. In addition, it can support thousands of simultaneous connections.
• Proxy services enable mediation of services without the need for coding; they include transport (HTTP/S, JMS, SMTP), interface (WSDL, Schema, Policy), message format (SOAP, POX), quality of service (WS-Security, RM), and optimization switching (MTOM, SwA). For example, the WSO2 ESB can be used to simply bridge between an XML message interaction on IBM’s MQSeries middleware and a Web service call on a Microsoft .NET server.
• An integrated registry/repository facilitates dynamic configuration, meaning that administrators can manage the ESB without having to bring the system down. The WSO2 ESB also includes built-in support for external registries, allowing resources to be centrally managed and refreshed as necessary without having to bring the systems down.
• Throttling, load balancing and failover controls optimize availability and help to manage and maintain service-level agreements.
• The light, feature-rich AJAX Web-based administration console facilitates monitoring, management and definition of policies, routing and transformations.
• Configuration model support includes XSLT, XPath, Java, Ruby, and Javascript, providing administrators with maximum flexibility.

“Businesses understand the need for agile, loosely coupled architecture provided by SOA, but traditional IT approaches to integration often add complexity that prevents enterprises from fully realizing this goal,” said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst and founder of IT analysis and advisory firm ZapThink LLC. “Offering a lightweight, code-free approach to service mediation, WSO2's ESB marks a significant move forward towards achieving the simplicity companies desire to optimize collaboration throughout the extended enterprise.”

“SOA is uniquely supported by open source initiatives in that products produced via community development and governance are inherently inclusive and favor heterogeneity,” said Dana Gardner, founder of IT research firm Interarbor Solutions, and author of Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect blog on ZDNet.com. "Open source ESBs in particular, like WSO2 ESB 1.0, can be created and amended through the community to assimilate as many aspects of an IT environment as possible, providing a powerful bridge and high-performance mediation framework."

Availability and Support

The WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus is available now. Like the WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS) launched last year, the WSO2 ESB is 100-percent open source and based on key open source standards. It works equally well with J2EE, .NET, JMS, and HTTP/S-based systems, as well as Apache Axis and Axis2 endpoints.

WSO2 offers a range of service and support options for the WSO2 ESB. These include consulting, custom development, and sponsorship of open source feature development; development and production support; and training. For information on service and support fees, visit www.wso2.com. Additionally, the WSO2 Oxygen Tank (www.wso2.org) is an open portal that provides in-depth product information, tutorials, tools, forums, wikis and more.

About WSO2

WSO2 is an open source middleware company founded by pioneers in Web services and of members of the Apache Software Foundation Web services community. The company is delivering a new, entirely open source middleware stack that is optimized for Web services and SOA and built on Apache Axis2. The company’s first products are the WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS) and WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), which are built on the WSO2 Web Services Framework. The company is backed by Intel Capital and maintains operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.