WebLogic customers now have a roadmap to take their applications and portals
onto a services-oriented architecture (SOA)
Systems Enterprise Portal Rationalization (ERP) and
Value Assessment Monday.
The initiative is aimed at
what BEA officials say is a common problem in many of today’s companies: a “Web
sprawl” of applications and portals by software vendors that leaves blind-spots in the IT manager’s view of the enterprise network. This leads to poor end-user adoption rates in the enterprise, BEA said.
Nils Gilman, director of product marketing at the San Jose, Calif.-based
software company, said BEA recognizes most companies don’t
subscribe to one over-arching software platform strategy; many times, it’s a
grab bag of software products by different vendors.
“What we’re trying to do is provide a basic framework that allows you
to take your existing resources and have them talk to other resources in a
way that’s historically been difficult to do,” he told
internetnews.com.
To accomplish this goal, BEA is relying on its J2EE-based |
But even wrap and re-use has its challenges, which makes the BEA Business Value
When asked if this services/software combination bears a strong resemblance
“For IBM, they really have a services strategy; BEA has a software strategy
He went on to say that with BEA, you’re not saddled with a billion-dollar,
BEA is working with several other services vendors to make their Web sprawl
software packages and portal.
For example, with disparate portal
applications, a new Java standard — Java Specification Request 168
(JSR-168) — provides a common interface to allow them to speak with each
other. Rather than “rip and replace” it, as BEA officials say, users can put a
standards-based face on the application and bring it fully onto the WebLogic
platform.
Assessment, a consulting component of WebLogic to help bring companies
in-line with BEA vision of a SOA environment, crucial.
BEA consultants will visit a customer site to help then identify root causes for
inefficiencies between disparate applications and portals. Then they will provide a
best-practices solution and deliver the expertise to bring them together.
to IBM’s own SOA platform via Rational, Gilman was quick to point out the differences.
around this,” he said. “[With] IBM, their answer to Web sprawl is to walk
into a customer site and say, ‘listen, sign over your entire IT department
for life, the journey is the endpoint.’ BEA has a very different
philosophy, we believe software itself can get you to a more rational
future, you’re going to be able to take your existing assets and reuse them
using infrastructure software.”
five-year contract like you would be with IBM; once a customer works with
BEA’s services team to streamline a business network, he or she is done — and at
a fraction of the cost.
initiative and services components work. On Monday, the company announced
marketing and sales agreements with consulting firms Accenture , Hewlett-Packard
Services and Enterpulse.
