SAN FRANCISCO — Borland Software is hoping a little
of that ‘ole Java magic will rub off on its desktop this week.
The software firm made a slew of announcements Monday aimed at
bringing more revenue and developers to its slate of platforms and services.
Central to its Java strategy, the company has expanded its
developer-support relationship with eBay and its PayPal subsidiary;
updated a software package that diagnoses J2EE applications with service-oriented
architectures
Community (JTC).
“As a global leader in the software industry for more than 20 years and
the voice of almost three million developers, Borland has the opportunity
and a responsibility to help the Java community meet today’s challenges and
prepare for the future,” Pat Cerpan, CTO of Borland, said during his
keynote at Sun Microsystems’ JavaOne developer
conference here.
The eBay announcement alone should bring in hoards of developers to
Borland. The online auction giant has upwards of 25 million auction
listings at any given time and is building a Web services-based affiliate
program. The deal means that eBay and PayPal software
development kits (SDKs) will become available to Borland’s JBuilder
developers.
This is an
extension
of the agreement between the two companies, which started when eBay granted SDKs for
Borland’s Delphi developer tools for the Microsoft .NET platform.
To make sure that it can stay in the hunt with Java distribution leaders
like IBM and BEA Systems
, Borland updated its
Optimizeit ServerTrace platform. Version 3 works with both the J2EE platform
and its SOA environments to pinpoint performance issues and help IT teams
track software performance through development, testing and production.
“Application outages due to poor J2EE application quality and performance
pose a tremendous business risk,” George Paolini, vice president and general
manager of developer tools at Borland, said in a statement. “Adoption of
SOAs further heightens the need to manage application performance as often
external dependencies are involved.”
The new SOA view tracks AXIS/SOAP and JAX-RPC
(Java API for XML-based RPC) Web services
request takes as it flows between SOA applications and Web services
providers. Borland said the updated Optimizeit ServerTrace is scheduled to
debut in August.
And to ensure its say in the future development of enterprise
Java, Borland has joined the
Java Tools Community
as a core member. The company will now promote tool-friendly
Java technology standards along with constituents BEA, Compuware,
Embarcadero Technologies, Iopsis Software, JetBrains, Oracle, Quest
Software, SAP AG, SAS and Sun.
The JTC was founded in January 2004 as an independent entity that advises
the Java Community Process (JCP) on tool standards issues. It acts as a
discussion forum for tools vendors to collaborate on making Java tools
better, easier, open and more interoperable. It also functions as a liaison to
elevate these important issues within the JCP and its member companies.
Borland was initially reticent about joining the JTC
citing immaturity of the group. But back in April, Borland began
calling for a formalization process between the JCP and
the JTC setting the wheels in motion for the company to become a member.
Borland will now advise the JCP on Java Specification Requests and
help resolve the so-called “toolability” issues as they pertain to developers’
standards-based tools.
