Paul Krill

Adopting a service-oriented architecture (SOA) promises to transform rigid networks into flexible, agile application services delivery platforms that compile disparate IT components on the fly to meet business demands. The concept appeals to many. But many IT executives still have trouble identifying the practical steps needed to achieve an enterprise SOA. Vendors are more than willing to jump in and help out.

Macromedia will raise the stakes in streaming media software Thursday with a product that eliminates the need for a supplemental application server for tracking content. Best known for its pervasive Flash technology for graphical Web presentations, the company will introduce Flash Media Server 2.

Microsoft has made a series of changes to the Visual Studio 2005 toolset that will be shipping in November, focusing on areas such as disk-based caching, licensing, and security.

Microsoft this week began offering a beta release of its Web Services Enhancements 3.0 pack for .Net, which is focused on security. Microsoft in June had released Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds, which are less stable, pre-beta versions, of WSE 3.0. "This beta represents the evolution that takes into consideration the valuable customer feedback received so far, especially through the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) product feedback centre," Microsoft said.

Zend Technologies and Oracle will release a beta version of a product linking Oracle's database to PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) programming, which is becoming a prominent alternative or supplement to the Java and .Net application development paradigms.

Microsoft at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) next month will discuss a variety of upcoming technologies, including Visual Basic 9.0 and the .Net Language Integrated Query Framework.

Apache officials hope to iron out licensing issues with Microsoft and IBM pertaining to the WS-Security specification so that Apache can add the technology to its open source Axis SOAP stack. Axis is envisioned as a Web services engine for deploying SOAs, according to Apache.

IBM and Laszlo Systems announced they are teaming to link the OpenLaszlo rich Internet application development system to the open source Eclipse platform. Although previously available on the IBM alphaWorks technology site, the "IDE for Laszlo" plug-in that hooks OpenLaszlo to Eclipse is being formally contributed to the Eclipse Foundation.