Sun readies dev tools suite, UDDI package
Sun Microsystems Inc. will soon unveil the Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) Developer Platform, a set of tools and software servers intended to provide IT shops with integration across the life cycle of development.
The package will feature Sun’s new UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) registry product for setting up registries of Web services available within a firewall or via an extranet. Sun will also ship its Sun ONE Studio 4 tool, a component of the tools set and the successor to the Forte for Java package, which has been fitted with Web services generation support. Additionally, Sun will soon detail a new version of its Java-based application server, also part of the developer platform. With the Sun ONE Developer Platform, the company seeks to solve the problem of isolated “silos” of development in an enterprise, said Sun’s Sanjay Sarathy, director of product marketing for Sun ONE developer enablement. This has been caused by a proliferation of developer roles, such as portal developers, Web content designers, information architects and Java architects, Sarathy said.
‘Smart’ Java software brews-up apps
Imitation Software is introducing a solution that opens the doors to Java programming “for the rest of us.” Based on artificial intelligence research into how humans learn, the solution, Imitate, lets its users create Java applications and applets without advanced programming knowledge. Imitate works like this: a user demonstrates the steps of the function they want to build, and the software automatically writes a Java program that’s a generalization of those actions.
Imitate was developed by university lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Edmund Furse. “For the average user, this sort of program lets them create a variety of functions previously beyond their grasp without spending months learning how to write Java code. Imitate means that users merely have to work through the steps of an example, and the computer will imitate their example,” he said.
IT pros prepare as war in India looms
The escalating tension between India and Pakistan is prompting outsourcing clients to review the disaster preparedness of software development firms in both countries.
The scrutiny covers aspects such as the developers’ network redundancy, their access to backup communications circuits, their systems documentation practices and their ability to quickly move key personnel and processes to safer locations in Europe and North America.
Oracle in talks to buy HP middleware
Oracle Corp. is in discussions with Hewlett-Packard Co. to buy its middleware assets, a move that could provide a much-needed boost to Oracle’s application server business, industry sources report.
HP’s middleware includes products it acquired from Bluestone Software Inc. in 2000, including a J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application server, transaction server, messaging server and various XML tools, in a deal valued at the time at approximately US$470 million. Oracle is in talks with HP regarding a potential acquisition of its entire middleware product line, according to sources. HP and Oracle declined to comment.
XML weaves app trend
As enterprises increasingly look to expose corporate data as XML across a range of software applications, a common XML framework is emerging to support the development of collaboration capabilities.
Although collaboration has traditionally been employed as an isolated application process, recent moves by a host of vendors to stitch XML data throughout the IT infrastructure is driving collaboration capabilities into and between applications. Illustrating the trend, start-up Vayusphere Inc. recently rolled out a software platform designed to combine corporate IM (instant messaging) with an application integration gateway to connect workers with back-end applications. Using XML and other Web services protocols such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and WSDL (Web Services Description Language), Mountain View, Calif.-based Vayusphere’s IRiS (Instant Response Server) 2.0 sits between enterprise applications and IM networks, creating a dialogue between a worker and an application, company officials said.
