Web Services Strategy Shift For Infravio

Angling for a bigger bite from the burgeoning Web services management market, software maker Infravio has completed a new federated registry to help propel collaboration within enterprises and Web services across businesses.

Infravio President and CEO Jeff Tonkel said Infravio’s X-registry is a central repository of available services within an enterprise, including the configurations, implementation requirements, and physical locations of every service.

The software package allows the use and reuse of services as part of new applications, providing a “user friendly forum to advertise services to partners, customers, and fellow developers.”

And because X-registry also defines and manages the relationship between service providers — those who build the Web service and end-users consuming the service — Tonkel argues it is a critical product for an enterprise to have in offering an SOA.

This is because providers can promote their services while having a clear window into and control over who is using the
service, which leads to improved support for the consumer.

The two-pronged strategy for Infravio is an attempt by the company to differentiate itself in a sea of small players that are now sloshing into the market for Web services and SOAs. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company bills itself as an enabler of service-oriented architectures (SOAs).

X-registry, which can function as the sole corporate registry (internal), or
as a federated (external) registry, provides companies with a single point
of access for all of the information about Web services in their business.

The software is built on a metadata repository and uses Infravio’s Web
Services Delivery Contract model to bridge the gap between provider and
consumer. There is data about WSDL , XML schema
, and version information of a Web service.

But unlike UDDI registries, Tonkel said X-registry directly
addresses business managers and analysts by including service descriptions,
service level agreements, pricing information, and other details used to
consider Web service implementation.

The X-registry joins the X-broker for Web service delivery management and
X-console for Web service operations management as the components behind the
company’s Xtended Web Services Management Suite. Pricing for the new software starts at $35,000 and will be available in the third quarter 2004.

Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst at Web services and SOA research firm
ZapThink, said Infravio is addressing a vital need in the market.

“As companies start to implement real-world Web services, they quickly recognize how crucial advanced registry and corporate directory capabilities are to achieve the benefits they want and need,” Schemlzer said.

While IBM , Microsoft , Computer Associates and others are working on similar management issues, Infravio competes with the likes of Cape Clear, Systinet, Actional and Amberpoint in the fairly nascent though intensely competitive space.

Infravio has made other noise of late by inking a key OEM partnership with Microsoft Windows management software provider NetIQ in April. NetIQ agreed to use Infravio’s performance and availability management technology in their AppManager suite. NetIQ also took a 10 percent stake in Infravio.