Software AG, a provider of business infrastructure software, announced it would soon be shipping the latest release of its flagship webMethods platform, webMethods 8.0. The package includes CentraSite ActiveSOA, a unified repository for business and technical services.
Until now, organizations have been forced to maintain SOA assets in one registry and keep business process assets in a separate silo, thus forcing a disconnect between SOA and Process Improvement initiatives. webMethods 8.0, in conjunction with CentraSite ActiveSOA, puts all assets-including web services, integration-related services, and business process models, and key performance indicators-in a single unified repository.
"The crown jewel with webMethods 8.0 is CentraSite," Miko Matsumura, vice president and chief software strategist for Software AG, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "And we have ActiveSOA, which is the fusion of the Infravio technology [purchased by webMethods in 2006] with the classic CentraSite enterprise edition technology, which comes from the XML technology legacy of Software AG. These streams all coming together within the context of metadata handling and governance is at the heart of webMethods 8.0. It's a different layer of unification."
Additional features in webMethods 8.0 include enhanced business process management, with a new paradigm in end-user productivity through collaborative personal workspaces; webMethods Mediator, a new service mediation solution; a unified, Eclipse-based design environment for building, deploying, and managing projects across the SOA, BPM and Integration lifecycles; embedded business intelligence to deliver process analytics to knowledge workers, enabling them to compare real-time performance against historical trends for informed decision-making; and business user self-service with intelligent applications and personal workspaces.
"The question for Software AG becomes what is the grand unifying theory of the SOA world?" Matsumura says. "And the unifying theory of the SOA world tends to be metadata, registry/repository, and the governance paradigm. That's really what comes to the heart of what we're offering."
webMethods 8.0 will launch as First Customer Ship on June 29. General availability is slated for December. For more details, go here.