TIBCO updates service management platform

TIBCO, the service oriented architecture (SOA) vendor has today released the second version of its ActiveMatrix suite to manage those IT infrastructures that rely on increasingly complex integrated application environments.

ActiveMatrix 2 updates the SOA development platform first launched at the end of 2006 with new service virtualisation, governance, integration and service bus capabilities.

Stefan Farestam, TIBCO customer marketing director said the new version is based in large part on feedback from the 75 existing customers that have used Active Matrix to gain control of their SOA development, testing, deployment and management.

"We have expanded it to incorporate BusinessWorks, which now runs natively in ActiveMatrix, which means services defined within that integration and orchestration software can now be managed in the ActiveMatrix framework," he told IT PRO.

ActiveMatrix 1 contained a service grid, position manager and registry for tracking services. The second version builds out this functionality into other key areas of an SOA environment and brings TIBCO's enterprise application integration (EAI) technologies - BusinessWorks, iProcess Suite and its Adapters - where Farestam said that, long term, TIBCO would move all its products onto this management platform.

Three new packs also aim to extend SOA to those organisations that are either just starting to use SOA concepts or wanting to extend their scope across the enterprise: the starter bundle contains the new service bus messaging system to handle basic service mediation tasks within ActiveMatrix itself.

The second bundle also includes BusinessWorks and the SmartMapper service data repository and modelling tool to introduce automation as part of an SOA framework. "This bundle is for those customer with legacy business applications that might want a more solid foundation for SOA-based application integration," said Farestam.

The third delivers a composite application bundle to extend the use of the service grid. Farestam added it does not contain the mapping tool or other adaptors, but is designed to enable the more sophisticated service development environments, using composite applications, around an SOA backbone.

Other new features include greater support for service component architecture (SCA) designed to make it easier for architects to compose and orchestrate services built by individual developer teams without cost and overheads associated with significant development.

Its single, unified development environment based on

Eclipse, updated debugging functionality and new user interface to manage hundreds of services more easily will also allow for service virtualisation. This is where developers or architects can build out services (including Java and Microsoft .NET) and then deploy them within ActiveMatrix.

"This capability allows for the decoupling of the hardware and applications from the services they run," said Farestam. "It is a distributed container framework that can run on a number of hosts that appear no differently to the end consumer."

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