JBoss Opens Up Messaging, Web Servers

Open source company JBoss Inc. added messaging projects for service-oriented architecture (SOA) on Monday in an effort to boost the company's JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite (JEMS) into the enterprise market.

JBoss Messaging, a standards-based messaging platform, aims to help enterprises communicate via computers. JBoss Web Server provides Web server capabilities for Apache Tomcat and JBoss Application users.

Both software infrastructures are aimed at customers who want to create applications. JBoss Messaging and JBoss Web Server are free to download under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and are alternatives to middleware offered by BEA Systems Inc. and IBM Corp.

JBoss Messaging 1.0 uses messaging core capable of supporting large SOAs, enterprise service buses (ESB) and other integration needs ranging from simple to sophisticated networks, the company said.

Since the software is free, revenue will come from subscription services, such as training, consulting and support, said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management at JBoss. "Previously that middleware function was built into our applications server," he said. "Unlike proprietary vendors that package functions into a black box, our approach is to provide functions in a plug-and-play fashion to let companies mix and match."Although JBoss Messaging and JBoss Web Server are new, Connolly boosts approximately 300,000 downloads monthly for the complete JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite, about 10 products.

As for Messaging 1.0, the software is compatible with Java Message Service (JMS) 1.1 and 1.0.2b standards. The software includes a messaging core that supports transactional ACID semantics, generalized message and other protocols. It allows JMS clients to connect to a JBoss server to send and receive messages.

JBoss Web Server 1.0 provides enterprises with one deployment platform for Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Servlet technologies, Microsoft ASP.NET, PHP and CGI. It incorporates open source technologies for processing high-volumes of data, as well as support for Java Enterprise Edition (EE) specifications.

Built on the Apache Tomcat container for Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Servlets, JBoss Web can handle more than 10,000 concurrent connections. A preview version of Web Server, JBoss Web 1.0, is available today. JBoss will release a production version in June.

Other products are on the way as JBoss makes it way to an initial public offering (IPO) "when the market is right," perhaps within the next 18 months, Connolly said. As for the "rumors" that JBoss will one day belong to Oracle Corp., Connolly said "Don't believe what you read. The market wants another open-source applications vendor."0