SeeBeyond improves application integration

SeeBeyond Technology last week released a comprehensive upgrade to its suite of integration products, adding new components that could let customers more easily build composite applications assembled from existing programs.

SeeBeyond Technology last week released a comprehensive upgrade to its suite of integration products, adding new components that could let customers more easily build composite applications assembled from existing programs.

The SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) suite Version 5.0, which the company has called its most significant upgrade in four years, is certified as compliant with Version 1.3 of Sun Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Among other things, J2EE compliance means a customer can deploy applications configured using ICAN on application servers from other compliant vendors, such as BEA Systems and IBM. It also provides developers with a more familiar and consistent runtime environment in which to work, says Alex Andrianopoulos, vice president of product management at SeeBeyond.

Also upgraded is eInsight Business Process Manager, which includes graphical tools for mapping out a business process. Version 5.0 includes an implementation of the proposed Business Process Execution Language standard. It also makes use of Web services technologies such as Web Services Description Language and Simple Object Access Protocol.

Version 5.0 also includes components for building composite applications. These are assembled by linking existing applications that comprise a business process, adding some new business logic and creating a user interface for the resulting program. EVision Studio is a new tool included for creating GUIs for composite applications, while ePortal composer acts as a GUI aggregator for personalizing access.

Also new is eView Studio, which uses probability matching to provide one view of an entity featured in multiple applications. For example, a bank could produce a single view of a customer’s checking account, savings account and investment activities. The suite also adds eBAM studio, a tool for business activity monitoring.

ICAN Version 5.0 also supports HP’s NonStop high-availability servers, Andrianopoulos says. The suite components are available separately priced from $80,000 to $200,000, with pricing for a typical configuration ranging from $250,000 to $500,000, he says.

Niccolai is a correspondent with the IDG News Service’s San Francisco bureau.