Carolyn A. April

Unlike earlier distributed computing technologies, Web services and XML give the software industry a chance to finally realize the "standardization dream" enjoyed by industries such as transportation and manufacturing, said Iona Technologies PLC CTO Eric Newcomer on Thursday.

Sporting an entry-level price point that goes head to head with Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk Server, IBM Corp. this week clarified its business process integration strategy around the release of WebSphere Business Connection.

Promising to speed data analysis and decision-making across the enterprise, vendors are beginning to embrace a technology trend that marries the worlds of application integration and business intelligence, according to industry observers.

Looking to lower the cost barriers to connecting to an electronic trading hub, Microsoft Corp. on Monday rolled out two entry-level versions of BizTalk Server 2002 including one that carries a sub-US$1,000 price tag.

Looking to lower the cost barriers to connecting to an electronic trading hub, Microsoft Corp. on Monday rolled out two entry-level versions of BizTalk Server 2002

BEA Systems Inc. and Mercator Software Inc. on Tuesday embarked on a deal that ties Mercator's integration broker and out-of-the-box vertical integration applications to BEA's WebLogic application server.

Start-up Enosys Software officially launched on June 3, rolling out a suite of data integration software that company officials claim features the first commercially available engine based on the XQuery standard.