Wired for Health Quality Act
here. <ed.note>Note: Sec. 403. Facilitating the Provision of Telehealth Services Across State Lines</ed.note>
<ebTelecomm/>
Sprint network to use Intel's WiMax
By John Markoff and Ken Belson, The New York Times
Intel has also made progress in South Korea, which is using a version of WiMax called WiBro, and in developing countries like Brazil and Pakistan.
...More broadly, Intel has long wanted to create a global wireless network that mirrors today's land-based Internet, in which dozens of competitors build equipment designed to support a single open standard.
Sprint says it expects to reach a third of the U.S. population with its new network by the end of 2008.
Sprint's WiMax gambit could put pressure on Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, and on equipment makers, to move toward more open standards and what the industry refers to as "network neutrality," a network design in which all types of data traffic are treated equally by the network operators.
Enable real-world trading partner collaborations in SOA
[ An introduction to the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement standard ]
By Leo Fernandez, Ash Parikh, Varun Gupta, Javaworld.com
This article is part of a series of short articles that introduce readers to the industry's various Web services standards. These articles provide a quick introduction to these standards, their backgrounds, underlying architectures, benefits, status, and industry adoption. As some of the content may be a depiction of the authors' viewpoints, readers are encouraged to refer to the links provided in Resources to gain a deeper understanding of a particular standard. This article focuses on Web services-enabled trading-partner collaboration standards that influence a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
ebBP v2.0.3 packages has been approved as an OASIS Committee Specification
We are actively working within OASIS and with other interested user communities in Asia, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands to gain the implementation certifications to advance to OASIS Standard and hopefully to ISO to complete the ISO-15000 series (mentioned in OASIS Symposium last week). We'd welcome your support in this regard.
We've consolidated a wealth of information relevant to our user communities at our public web site at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-bp v2.0.3 Packages and, if desired, individual schema files, see "Technical Work Produced by the Committee."
ebBP is also in the news:
- ebBP was featured in the SOA Business Session at the OASIS Symposium, May 2006, see "Expository Work Produced by the Committee."< /li>
- ebBP was featured at the OMG Think Tank on "Business Collaboration Using ebBP" (also posted at the location above). Thanks to our team member Sally St. Amand for providing interested users and BPM enthusiasts with more details on ebBP at this event.
Both presentations are available at the public web site provided. Also, check out web site:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- ebBP Overview
- Process definitions for
- CPPA negotiation
- UBL or UBL Small Business Subset (SBS) v1.0 process definitions: Features modular definitions and use of new document reference function and also includes CPPA package
- Dutch government criminal justice instances and use case document
- Business signal examples
- Knit wear Italian draft process definitions
- Draft ebBP editor: User guide and update are to be released very soon.
- Process definitions for
Note, the UBL Small Business Subset v1.0 is now an OASIS Committee Specification and includes a set of ebBP v2.0.3 modular process definitions, called Universal Business Processes.
As we've said before (and will say again politely), our focus on user communities is paying off - one example being the interest in the UBL community - and we now have achieved Committee Specification. We're interested in those that are developing their own process definitions and can show their successful use of ebBP. We encourage you to check out our public web site and keep abreast of our progress made thus far. For those using or interested in using ebBP, please contact Dale Moberg and myself (particularly if you are an OASIS member!). Best regards.
Respectfully,
Dale Moberg, <dmoberg @ us.axway.com>
Monica J. Martin, monica.martin @ sun.com
and the ebBP team
An OASIS White Paper: 'The ebBP' (ebXML Business Process Specification Schema)
By The OASIS Business Process TC (Dale Moberg and Monica J. Martin, co-chairs) For OASIS
Business processes are key components to enable and drive collaborating partner relationships for electronic business (eBusiness). The ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS or ebBP) provides capabilities drive those eBusiness collaborative processes. As a part of the original eBusiness eXtensible Markup Language (XML) [ebXML] framework of specifications, the ebBP is targeted for monitoring of collaborative business processes among parties or business partners.
The ebBP (ebXML Business Process Specification Schema) defines a standard language to configure business systems for business collaboration execution between collaborating parties or business partners. It provides:
In the second quarter 2006, the OASIS ebBP v2.0.3 set of packages are moving towards OASIS standard. The changes and capabilities defined in the v2.0.x packages have substantially increased the business value-add for using standard process definitions. These definitions support tailoring of eBusiness processes and business documents to serve our user community.
The ebBP focuses on an integrated eBusiness adaptable approach in order to support heterogeneous environments, particularly Small- to Medium-Enterprises. As with other specifications and capabilities, ebBP can be leveraged other ebXML and/or emerging web services technologies.
It is the ‘community at large’ that has emboldened the development of ebBP and likely will drive its adoption.
Release of Webswell Connect 1.4.1 open-source ebXML integration platform
Webswell Inc. released a new version of Webswell Connect, the
open-source ebXML integration platform. Webswell Connect 1.4.1 constitutes a comprehensive ebXML integration platform
that supports http, https and email communication while keeping it safe and
reliable implementing digital signatures, encryption, acknowledgments mechanism,
duplication elimination etc. Webswell
Connect 1.4.1 contains the most recent versions of its components: Webswell Broker (ebXML message broker) and Hermes 1 (ebXML message service
handler). The whole platform is production quality and has been implemented in business
cases where it has been proving its interoperability with other integration
platforms on the market. Webswell Connect 1.4.1 is entirely open source software
distributed under Academic Free License. Download here.
The Webswell Connect 1.4.1 contains:
- E-business registry and repository
- ebXML messaging system
- Application connector called Webswell Broker
- Demonstration and monitoring utilities
- Components and libraries needed for the platform function
- XML editor
About Webswell:
Webswell Inc. is a Sacramento, California based integration
company specialized in building ebXML and Web Services integration solutions and
providing related consultancy. Webswells mission is to help companies of any
size to build business integration solutions and exploit benefits that such
integration provides. All Webswell software is based on open, non-proprietary
standards and is open-source licensed.
TigerLogic Plug-In for Sun Services Registry
Ash Parikh* wrote recently
...Just wanted to inform you that the press release on the Plug-In is now live and the respective download page on our website is in place, fully tested and ready for download requests.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060302/lath057.html?.v=47
http://www.rainingdata.com/products/TLSunPlugin/index.html
http://www.rainingdata.com/products/TLSunPlugin/signup/index.html
Cheers!
*Director of Development and Technology, EAG
Raining Data Corporation (NASDAQ: RDTA)
"Technology for Innovative Solutions"
www.rainingdata.com
+1 (510) 673-2922 - Office
+1 (510) 372-0432 - eFax
ash@rainingdata.com - Email
Co-Chair: SDForum Web services SIG
Founding Member: OASIS SOA Blueprints TC
Co-Chair: W2COG Technical Advisory and Oversight Committee
Member: OASIS, JCP, W3C, EPCGlobal, Supply-Chain Council, BPM Institute
Founder and President: World Wide Institute of Software Architects
Product Advisory Board Member: Iopsis Software, WindSpirng
Oxlo Systems Integrates Dealer Service Providers Into General Motors' Retail Inventory Management Application
Broomfield, Colo. – February 22, 2006 – Oxlo Systems, Inc. today announced that it is providing six dealer service providers with integration into the General Motors’ Retail Inventory Management (RIM) application. Oxlo is currently in production with Automotive Computer Services for GM RIM integration, and is under contract to provide an integration solution to Dealer Information Solutions, DPC Systems, Dubuque Data Services, Jarvis Computer Software and Procede Software.
“Our rapidly growing network of integrated partners continues to prove Oxlo’s value proposition delivers results,” said Jim Lejeal, CEO and co-founder of Oxlo Systems. “Oxlo simplifies integration for both the OEM and the DSP, thus creating a higher level of customer satisfaction and greater profitability.”
”Integrating through Oxlo has proven a great benefit to our company,” said Van Koppersmith, President of Automotive Computer Services. “The Oxlo team is focused solely on integration, and that focus results in a very professional, efficient integration process, letting us focus more on our customer – the dealer,” added Koppersmith.
The Oxlo Dealer Communications Hub (DCH) enables more tightly integrated dealer systems that deliver greater value to all constituents, including dealers, OEMs, dealer system providers, other dealer business partners and ultimately the consumer.
ebBP Editor wiki
This document provides brief information about the ebBP Editor, and a User Guide for end-users presenting the usage and capabilities of the ebBP Editor. Please note that, this document DOES NOT provide a background on ebBP. Moreover, the ebBP Editor is based on the ebBP v2.0.1 specification, but is not dependent on this specification. That is, it can be easily adapted to future specification versions.
The ebBP Editor is a tool designed to help the user in creating generic as well as domain specific Business Process Specifications based on ebBP Version 2.0 by using semantic mechanisms. The editor lets the user to create Process Specifications from scratch or use the existing ones.
CEN/ISSS Workshop eBES organizes three ebXML Market Survey Events
With the support of the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry, the CEN/ISSS Workshop eBES organizes three ebXML Market Survey Events.
These events will take place respectively in:
If you are interested do not hesitate to contact the organizers or the eBES Secretariat
7 Software Applications Certified by Drummond Group for Global ebXML Interoperability
Interoperable ebMS Systems Mark Launch of Drummond Certified™ Program
AUSTIN, TX—Jan. 25, 2006—Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), the leading interoperability e-commerce certification company, today announced that seven software products from seven leading companies successfully completed the Drummond Certified™ program’s ebMS (ebXML Message Service)-4Q05 interoperability testing. This test round formally launched DGI’s Drummond Certified program designed for industries to drive adoption of technical standards and certify a stable foundation of software products to support their supply chains. Starting in 2006, all ebMS, AS1, AS2, AS3 and CSOS tests will be conducted under the Drummond Certified program.
ebMS is the messaging layer of the ebXML framework. The adoption of interoperable ebMS systems is critical to the growth of today’s marketplace to ensure that different information systems within numerous industries are able to exchange information efficiently and effectively.
Companies demonstrating interoperability among their products in the ebMS-4Q05 test round included Axway Software, Cleo Communications, Cyclone Commerce, Inc., Inovis USA, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Oxlo Systems, Inc., and Sterling Commerce. The software products from these solution providers deliver a cross-industry selection of tested standards- based, interoperable ebMS solutions to worldwide industries, including automotive, financial services, government, health care, public health and retail.
“For effective and timely responses between trading partners around the world, it is essential to choose tested and certified interoperable ebMS products,” said Rik Drummond, DGI’s chief executive officer. “Reliance on secure business data messaging techniques that are interoperable with various product versions and platforms will continue to advance to serve the needs of ever-changing industries throughout the world. These Drummond Certified solutions are ready to simplify and streamline the integration process between organizations and their customers at all levels.”
Interoperability and conformance testing of B2B and electronic commerce products are DGI’s core competency. DGI is structured to support an organization’s testing effort in an efficient, professional, cost-effective manner. By providing conformance and interoperability testing services, as well as certification and test development of software applications, DGI facilitates these professional, vendor-neutral services under its own newly- launched Drummond Certified program and various association-branded certification programs throughout several industries.
For specific ebMS-4Q05 test results, final report and registration information for 2006 test rounds, please visit: http://www.drummondgroup.com/html-v2/ebXML-companies.html.
The list below reflects products that passed the ebMS-4Q05 Drummond Certified™ interoperability test.
Company Product, Version
Axway Software ebMS Connector v2.1
Cleo Communications VersaLex™ v3.0 tested in VLTrader™ v3.0
Cyclone Commerce Cyclone Interchange/Activator/Central v5.3
Inovis USA Inc. BizManager 3.0
Oracle Corporation Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.2)
Oxlo Systems Inc. AutoTPX ebMS MSH, v1.31
Sterling Commerce Gentran Integration Suite/Sterling Integrator v4.1
Webswell starts ebXML certification process with KorBIT consortium
Jan 13th, 13:27 UTC , LinuxPR
Webswell Connect interoperability and ebXML standards conformance certification process launched
January 2006 - Sacramento, CA - Webswell Inc. has started the certification process of its Connect integration suite with KorBIT certification authority. During the certification process, Webswell Connect components will be tested for conformance with ebXML messaging standards (ebMS) and for interoperability with other state-of-the-art platforms.
- Conformance tests cover topics like Message Packaging, Core Extension Elements, Error Handling, Sync Reply, Reliable Messaging, Message Ordering and Security
- Interoperability tests focus on on-line communication between pairs of systems while various functions are monitored and evaluated, for example: Basic asynchronous or synchronous exchange with zero and more payloads, Acknowledgments processing, Error states processing etc.
Webswell expects from certification greater software quality and standards compliance guarantee that will significantly reduce efforts and costs of building B2B integration platforms.
Apart from certification process, Webswell and KorBIT agreed on closer cooperation. Webswell will build KorBIT adapter into future releases of Webswell Broker to provide prospective integration solutions developers with ability to test installed solutions for standards conformance and for interoperability quickly and easily. KorBIT will use Webswell Broker for more efficient usage of KorBIT testbed.
Webswell Broker release with built-in KorBIT adapter is planned for Spring 2006.
About KorBIT: Created in December 2002 in Korea, KorBIT is an open consortium formed to help enterprises to promote their interoperability in conducting businesses over the Internet. The KorBIT's mission is to demonstrate, validate, and assure interoperability among enterprises, by:
- Validating the conformance and interoperability of messaging, security, documents, and processes among enterprises;
- Validating the B2B, A2A, and supply chain solutions being used;
- Developing architectures, methodologies, and guidelines for automated testing and validation;
About Webswell: Webswell Inc. is a Sacramento, California based integration company specialized in building ebXML and Web Services integration solutions and providing related consultancy. Webswell's mission is to help companies of any size to build business integration solutions and exploit benefits that such integration provides. All Webswell software is based on open, non-proprietary standards and is open-source licensed.
enerbility Integrated CECID's Hermes for European Energy Trading
The Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and enerbility software gmbh of Vienna, Austria, are pleased to announce that the open source ebXML message service handler, Hermes, has been integrated in the electronic confirmation matching system enerbility 2.0.
enerbility 2.0 is the second generation of an ECM-system developed for the over-the-counter trading in the European energy industry. It is in use at major energy trading companies in Europe like E.ON, ATEL, Statkraft and APT.
enerbility focuses on the integration of best-of-breed third-party components into and around its transactional XML exchange and processing technology. To comply with the industry demand for ebXML, enerbility went for Hermes. In the selection process almost all available ebXML products have been evaluated and a selected subset has been tested.
Martin Schimak, the engineer evaluating the products, states: "In our evaluation process, we've considered all relevant aspects to find the best product concerning cost-performance ratio. We chose Hermes and are very satisfied with its stability and performance."
Hannes Stiebitzhofer, CEO of enerbility software gmbh, adds: "The reliability of Hermes - besides its ebXML MS 2.0 compliance as tested by ebXML Asia Committee - is a perfect complement to enerbility, running without any incidents for months."
CECID is happy about Hermes' first production use in the European energy trading market. "This is very encouraging to all of us. enerbility has demonstrated the use of Hermes in a 'raw material' supply chain. Without the support of our funding agency, the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong, we couldn't have developed Hermes. On the other hand, today's Hermes is also the result of contribution by developers in the open-source community around the world. I'm very pleased to see Hermes being chosen as the messaging gateway to facilitate the energy sector," says Dr. David Cheung, Director of CECID.
Thomas Lee, CTO of CECID, also responds positively to enerbility's decision. "enerbility is an innovative and fast-moving company. We are proud that Hermes, an open-source project that has been downloaded by 80+ economies, is able to meet enerbility's stringent requirements for performance and scalability in terms of handling a large number of messages reliably and securely."
Continue reading "enerbility Integrated CECID's Hermes for European Energy Trading" »
freebXML ebXML Business Process descriptions editor and Collaborative Partner Profile and Agreement editor
Dr. Asuman Dogac of Middle East Technical University, Software Research and Development, Center at Ankara Turkey [ http://www.srdc.metu.edu.tr/ ] announces the availability of the new freebXML BP Open Source project at Source Forge.
The project provides a royalty free ebXML Business Process descriptions editor as well as a Collaborative Partner Profile and Agreement editor developed by the METU-SRDC Team as a part of the IST 2103 Artemis project sponsored by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media, eHealth Unit.
The project is committed to Sourceforge: [ http://sourceforge.net/projects/freebxmlbp ] The latest user guide is available under "doc" directory of the "distribution". The developer mailing list is: [ freebxmlbp-developer@lists.sourceforge.net ] User mailing list is: [ freebxmlbp-user@lists.sourceforge.net ]
Where's my iPod video camera sat-wi-phone which is both SIP and Skype compliant?
<ed.note>I'm just askin'...</ed.note>
ebXML registry suited for SOA complexities, say proponents
Sept. 05, 2005 By Colleen Frye, SearchWebServices.com
As deployments of service-oriented architectures grow more complex, the need for federated information management and governance is emerging -- areas for which an ebXML registry is particularly well suited, according to proponents. As such, the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee is hitting the virtual road this month with webinars aimed at educating attendees on the features and capabilities of the ebXML Registry v3.0, which OASIS approved as a standard in May.
Use of an ebXML registry is also "an obvious next step for people looking to migrate from EDI [electronic data interchange]," said Carl Mattocks, consultant and project leader, asset inventory process improvement for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Bridgewater, N.J., and a member of the technical committee (TC). Among vertical industries, Mattocks said e-government and health care are early implementers and, he predicted, "are obvious places where you'll see growth."
Vertical industry groups that have implementations of ebXML Registry include the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative, the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "NIST has created a registry to help people register artifacts across the Web," Mattocks said.
ebXML Registry v3.0 Webinars - Thursday, 15 Sept 2005
Discover the advantages of the new ebXML Registry v3.0 OASIS Standard from the people who developed it. The OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee invites you to attend an open webinar to learn more about how ebXML Registry enables secure, federated information management within and across enterprises.
ebXML Registry provides the functionality you need to manage electronic artifacts for SOA including WSDL, XML Schema, BPEL, e-business and other process descriptions, ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profiles and Core Components, as well as application-specific artifacts. The OASIS Standard promotes service discovery and interoperability, while enabling secure, efficient sharing, reuse, and version control of artifacts. ebXML Registry can also be implemented for event or information asset registry and repository. In fact, any requirement you have for describing and registering items of interest to an organization can be accomplished with ebXML Registry.
ebXML Registry is particularly suited to support application- and domain-specific use cases. The fully ratified OASIS Standard has been adopted and deployed in vertical industries including government, health care, geospatial, telecommunications, banking, and finance.
Continue reading "ebXML Registry v3.0 Webinars - Thursday, 15 Sept 2005 " »
Supply Chain Event Management Revisited
July 1, 2005 By Ajay Ramachandran and Ash Parikh, BIJ
... RFID technology, by itself, has minimal value. The real value comes from being able to manage, query and analyze the information, link it to data and ultimately incorporate it into real-time processes.
XML is a standard data format endorsed by software industry leaders. Web Services refers to an integration style based on the use of structured XML document exchange between servers. Several critical factors make Web Services an ideal medium for communicating information about the SC:
- Data across the SC is embedded in a variety of formats, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSes). A neutral format is needed to integrate these information silos. XML Web Services provides a standard way to integrate multiparty SCs.
- XML documents can consist of nested elements distributed over multiple remote servers. XML is currently the most sophisticated format for distributed data. Similarly, when XML Web Services are used for integrating the SC, dramatically different locations, data systems, formats and partners all appear as one system. Web Services can solve the problem of visibility and lower the cost of integration.
- The hierarchical (tree) structure of XML documents lets you efficiently filter, compare, and aggregate documents element by element. XML provides a layered model for filtering RFID data. As messages move to high er layers of the model, message traffic naturally decreases, providing a natural way of filtering the signal from the noise, while the contextual richness of the message increases, providing a natural way to add context to complex events.
RFID and Web Services alone don’t entirely solve SCEM problems. Once installed, RFID systems begin to create huge data volumes and XML Web Services-based integration begins to expand the type and scope of events available. A method is needed for extracting meaningful, actionable information in real-time.
XQuery is a vendor-independent, powerful, easy-to-use, XML-native mechanism for querying large volumes of distributed data. It’s built on top of XPath, a sequence-based language for addressing parts of an XML Web Services document. XPath models an XML document as a tree of nodes. This tree-like structure lets XQuery query against nested or hierarchical document formats. ...
Open Source-ame
July 2005 By Ross O'Brien, Vonmag.com
DIY networks and an open mind with regards to service delivery are the keys to Asian operator’s growth prospects.
The back of the office can be a boring place, despite all the excitement generated by the surging outsourcing industry in Asia. Moreover, in a telecommunications service operator, the back office and its related IT infrastructure are made even duller by comparison to all the stuff up front: the gleaming new network technology that is enabling IP-based services. And yet, back office technology investments - or rather, technology optimization, just as it is for traditional enterprises - deserve as much attention, if not more, as carriers get their networks ready to tackle converged services markets, where service creation isn't just a matter of building up products and corresponding billing relationships, but one where any customer can be provided with, and be billed for, any product in the portfolio, and (eventually) access it over the device of their choice.
However, the complicating issue-note I don't say "the problem", at least not yet-is that "convergence" is still a fuzzy term at best for carriers. This does have its advantages in fostering next generation industries. Asia contains several well-concentrated 'convergence nodes': markets where fixed and mobile carriers duke it out over broadband customers, where online and mobile gaming development communities are popping up all over, where some of the only fully-integrated triple-play service operations in the world are actually winning copious market share. The fact is that market share in the convergence space is not a fight between cable TV companies and telcos, or between fixed voice services and mobile, as it is in the US.
Are Open Source Integration Solutions Mature?
by Henry Peyret and Michael Goulde with Andrew Parker, Forrester®, CIO.com
Companies have begun to use open source integration solutions in their critical projects. When compared with commercial integration solutions, the feature coverage of these open source tools remains poor. This is not surprising: Established standards are important as a platform for open source development, but standards bodies have yet to establish many standards in this area — particularly for the most advanced features. Despite this, open source integration solutions represent a viable alternative to commercial integration products for “follower” enterprises. To move forward, Forrester believes that large organizations — particularly government and large enterprises — will increasingly need to invest and participate in open source committees to drive requirements and interoperability standards and fund the development of more capable and coherent open source integration solutions.
Registering Updates to UDDI Registry Products
July 15, 2005 By Yvonne L. Lee, Software Development Times
You can’t tell the players without a program.
UDDI registries help programmers and SOA designers in much the same way that programs help fans at a sporting event. They tell developers and applications who owns a service, where the programmatic information is for the service, and what the rules are for who may access the service. Sun Microsystems and Systinet last month announced versions of their UDDI registries, while SOA Software updated a management tool based on its registry.
“You use the [UDDI] registry to describe the metadata, as well as a link to the WSDL,” said Luc Clement, senior program manager at Systinet and technical committee chair for OASIS’ UDDI specification technical committee. He said the registry also is used to store links to various resources important in a service-oriented architecture.
Sun’s Service Registry adheres to both UDDI 3.0 and ebXML, a suite of OASIS specifications that enables organizations to conduct business over the Internet. Sun’s registry incorporates standards for business processes, core data components, collaboration protocols, messaging, and registries and repositories.
People's Guide to the Telecommunications Act of 2006
Alliance for Community Media, Community Media Review - Summer 2005
We, THE PEOPLE, must work TOGETHER to write U.S. Media and Communications laws that serve the public interest as we move into our digital future.
The Telecommunications Act of 2006 must:
- Recognize public access to media & communications as a fundamental human right and the foundation of our democracy.
- Affirm the airwaves and public-rights-of-way as shared public resource to be used expressly for the "public convenience and necessity"
- Enforce the public interest principals of open access, ownership diversity, accountability, local control, and community reinvestment to support non-commercial media and communications.
- Apply equitably across all platforms: Phone, TV and Radio, Cable, Satellite & Broadband Services.
[ebXML, UDDI] Registries mature for SOA management
July 13, 2005 By Colleen Frye, News Writer, SearchWebServices.com
There's a strong need for data and meta data to be presented together and integrated. Miko Matsumura, Vice President of Marketing, Infravio
As service-oriented architecture (SOA) management players build out their offerings, registry, security and contracts between requestors and providers will be key differentiators, according to Steve Garone, vice president for applications and integration infrastructure software at Ideas International, in Port Chester, N.Y.
For Web services, registries and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), a Web-based distributed directory standard, were considered enabling technologies -- but optional, Garone said. "As people begin to move toward the new architecture, the registry will become more important to implement an SOA and manage it in a secure way."
The notion of SOA and the virtualization of IT resources add an extra dimension to the service discovery process, he said. "You can say the Web service is called this, this is how it's accessed and what server it runs on. But what happens in real time when you're deploying [that service] on different platforms? A registry has to keep track of that, so it becomes even more important."
Korea's e-Business Solution Testbed To Be Adopted As International [ebXML] Standard
July 13, 2005 By Kim Joon-bae, Korea IT News
e-Business solution testbed developed in Korea is expected to be adopted as international standard next month.
According to government and academia sources, the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards (ATS) and KorBIT, a consortium led by Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), are set to seal accords with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) next month, respectively, to use ebXML solution testbed as international standard for certification.
The ATS will exchange a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with the OASIS, while KorBIT will sign an agreement with the international organization. Being a non-profit international standardization organization headquartered in the United States, the OASIS is developing ebXML in cooperation with the UN/CEFACT.
The ATS has been developing the e-business solution testbed in conjunction with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since July 2003. In this project, the ATS is developing e-commerce message and registration depository, while the NIST is working on the development of electronic documents and business processes.
"As ebXML solution is widely spreading around the world, interoperability of the solution among enterprises is emerging as an important issue. The solution testbed being developed in Korea is about to be adopted as an international standard," said Pak In-su, manager at the ATS.
Registry + Repository = SOA Platform
June 6, 2005 By John K. Waters, ADTMag.com
There's a deafening buzz in service-oriented architecture around repositories, which appear to be emerging as a core component of SOA. What is actually emerging, says Miko Matsumura, is an integrated registry-repository model, which could serve as the core technology of what amounts to an SOA platform.
“Up to now, SOA has mostly been about point-to-point Web services integration,” Matsumura tells SOATrends. “If you’re connecting one point to another point, there’s no need for any kind of platform. It’s really just a cat’s-cradle kind of series of connections between everything and everything else. But people are starting to get interested in connecting things in a way that creates direction, coherence or intention.”
Matsumura is the former vice president of product marketing at Systinet, co-creator of The Middleware Company's SOA Blueprints (the first complete, vendor-neutral specification of an SOA application set), and the original Java evangelist at Sun Microsystems.
He recently signed on as VP of marketing at Infravio, a provider of SOA Web services management products, where he is expected to advance his Intentional SOA methodology.
Intentional SOA is about ensuring the business value of SOA, using best practices and principles, Matsumura explains. It raises key questions to help SOA builders stay on course during design and implementation. Intentional SOA moves beyond ad hoc Web services enablement, mandating a strategic, enterprise-wide view that directly addresses the gamut of business, technology, security and governance concerns posed by SOA.
Matsumura says the roles of registry and repository are sometimes confusing. That confusion, he says, is understandable.
Hermes Selected Best Infrastructure Building and Communication Application by Linux Business Award 2005
Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China – July 7, 2005 – Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID), University of Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to announce that our open source ebXML business-to-business (B2B) Messaging Server, Hermes, has won the Grand Award in Infrastructure Building and Communication Application of Hong Kong Linux Business Award 2005 http://www.hitechweekly.com/linuxaward2005.htm. Companies and products competed under Business Adoption Award and Product Development Award in sub-categories of Enterprise Business Application; Infrastructure Building and Communication Application; Industry Based Application and Linux Appliance resulting in four Grand Award and 10 Merit Award winners.
Organized by the HKSAR Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, Hong Kong Productivity Council and Hong Kong Linux Industry Association, Linux Business Award aims to educate and motivate enterprises in deploying IT application on Linux platform. Five entries were shortlisted to the final stage of Product Development Award’s Infrastructure Building and Communication Application category. Based on innovativeness and technology, deployment scale and scope, quality, cost effectiveness and benefits to society, Hermes came up with the top score to win the Grand Award. Two Merit Awards were also granted in this category.
Hermes Business-to-Business (B2B) Messaging Server is an open-source Message Service Handler embracing an e-commerce open standard (OASIS ebXML Messaging Service v.2.0). This award-winning product provides a standardized, reliable and secure infrastructure for enterprises to exchange business data on the Internet. Developers from 80+ economies have already downloaded Hermes’ source code since its release three years ago, and Hermes has many successful deployments. Some local users of Hermes include MTR, OOCL, Sony, HMV, bigboXX.com and HKSAR Government. Besides certified for ebXML and AS2 interoperability, Hermes has won Certificates of Merit (Product Category) at the 6th HK Computer Society IT Excellence Awards and Asia Pacific ICT Award 2004 (R&D Category). Hermes is available free from http://www.freebxml.org.
The Enterprise: Business Process Management Languages Part 4: BPMN
July 2005 Issue By Clive Finkelstein DM Review Magazine
In previous months, I discussed the concepts of service-oriented architecture (SOA). I covered three main business process management languages: BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) and also Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS) for ebXML. These business process management languages can be used to generate executable XML-based code directly from workflow diagrams or process models. This month I will discuss Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) - a process modeling diagramming standard.
Sun previews tool for SOA management
30 June 2005 - By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb
The increasing number of South African companies employing services-oriented architecture (SOA), Web services and electronic business extensible markup language (ebXML) can take advantage of early access to the new Web service registry from Sun Microsystems.
“The Sun Service Registry (SSR) is included in the Web Services Developer Pack (WSDP) v1.6, which is available for download from the Sun Java Web site,” says Tony Willis, engagement architect at Sun Microsystems SA.
Willis says any company committing to SOA and Web services projects, will sooner or later need a governance and management tool to keep track of services and manage associated metadata.
“The SSR exceeds the basic functionality of existing Web services registries to provide in-depth management and governance of services, enabling users to publish, manage, govern, discover and reuse services within a broad range of applications,” he explains.
New JBI standard could change Java
29 Jun 2005 By Nitin Bharti, News Editor | SearchWebServices.com
JBI acts like a container of containers, allowing various service engines and binding components to plug in and communicate using a common messaging bus. Business Process Execution Language services, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations translators and J2EE-based Web services are pluggable are examples of service engines. Binding components, on the other hand, act as translators between the JBI environment and different protocols such as SOAP, Applicability Statement 2 (AS2), Electronic Business XML (ebXML) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
The power behind the SOA repository
By Ash Parikh, Robert Smik, and Premal Parikh, JavaWorld
The nature of SOA data requires a native XML data management server
This article is written for readers looking at and considering efficient, flexible, and standards-based approaches to implementing real-world service-oriented architectures, or SOAs. With the proliferation of Web services and, hence, SOAs as viable approaches to developing and enhancing software architectures, it is imperative to acknowledge that the amount of SOA data will also continue to grow. Furthermore, as the Web services standards stack broadens in functionality, the number of SOA artifacts required to support these new standards grows by the day. We must recognize the obvious need to store, manage, query, manipulate, and transform SOA data. Also, requesting applications frequently access SOA data. A case can thus be made for a mid-tier cache that exposes technology-independent, reusable, and functionality-rich services, hence, improving SOA scalability and performance. Additionally, as enterprises engage in collaborations with trading partners, interaction with complex schemas becomes a challenge. Thus, more than just a simple XML persistence mechanism is needed. A native XML data management server lends itself seamlessly to such complex demands for SOA data management. (3,000 words; June 27, 2005)
Vordel debuts latest version of hardened XML security appliance - with on-board acceleration developed in association with Dajeil
June 21, 2005 – webitpr.com
Best-of-breed combination of XML processing and security acceleration addresses the enterprise requirements for XML security appliance
Vordel, the XML Web Services security company today announced the release of VS3000, the latest version of its hardened XML security gateway appliance. Developed in conjunction with hardware security acceleration experts Dajeil, the Vordel VS3000 XML Security Gateway is a wire-speed in-line device which filters XML traffic on the network.
Through a combination of standards-based access control and comprehensive XML attack prevention, the VS3000 allows an organization to control who accesses its XML applications, as well as controlling what data they send to it. The device functions as an XML-level router, augmenting existing network infrastructure.
The VS3000 is unique in its capability to provide protection for all classes of XML applications: SOAP-based Web Services, “plain XML” applications and “REST style” applications invoked using only HTTP. The device supports all XML dialects, including ACORD, FIXML, and ebXML.
ebXML Registry News from SUN [Update]
This week saw the announcement of a new ebXML Registry product by Sun. Related stories appeared in|on cbr, i-newswire, internetnews, techworld, and yahoo. One more at javaworld.
Traditional IVR to Become Extinct with the Emergence of Open-Standards Platforms
May 13, 2005 CRM2Day
'Traditional' touchtone interactive voice response (IVR) - utilized by businesses over the past two decades for the purposes of phone-based routing and self-service functionality, is firmly in its twilight years."
In a new report, "The Definitive Guide to the IVR Marketplace: North America and EMEA," independent market analyst Datamonitor expects revenues from proprietary touchtone IVR in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to decrease by more than 35% through 2009 as a growing number of businesses are opting to invest in emerging open-standard IVR platforms such as Voice-XML and SALT, to better leverage web infrastructure, improve functionality and potentially graduate to speech technology to further improve routing, transactions and self-service capabilities.
According to Datamonitor, spend on traditional IVR licenses will dip from $277 million to $179 million in North America and EMEA by 2009.
Spend on open-standards IVR licenses will grow from $166 million to $332 million in North America and EMEA by 2009
Three Standards, Three Convergence Waves
April 2005 By Bob Emmerson, VON Magazine
IP, SIP and XML are more than standards, they're technology milestones. They've given us VoIP, presence and dynamic Web pages, developments that are enabling different convergence scenarios. But at the end of the day everything is coming together.
IP was the first standard. No surprises there. The lingua franca of data communications moved on in the 1990s: it enabled voice-data convergence and became the foundation for communications in the 21st century. VoIP has driven tariffs down to the level at which we can start talking about free telephony on public networks and network operators accept that it is not a sustainable business model.
SIP is the second standard. This is a 'rendezvous' protocol that establishes end-toend sessions over IP networks. You need a SIP proxy server to set up calls, but after that, all the network does is transport the traffic. SIP's ability to traverse different IP domains means that any IP network mix appears as a single converged network to users: that is their perception and it's the only one that matters. SIP's other major claim to fame comes via its deployment in presence-aware, real-time communications software.
The third standard is XML (eXtensible Markup Language). XML allows the content of web pages to be defined and there will be myriad uses for this technology. In the business environment XML is being used in business process integration. XML pages are de facto database records and they can be passed from one application to another, e.g. from CRM to ERP. The technology therefore enables the automated flow of information from the start of the process to the end; this is the basis of the real-time enterprise.
JCP Watch: WSCI on J2ME, Mobile Messaging from J2SE/EE and ebXML Support
By Apu Shah
Mobile mania has hit the JCP this week with three new specification requests relating to mobile technologies. The first proposes an API for mobile messaging (such as SMS and MMS) from J2SE and J2EE applications as opposed to J2ME applications. The other two proposals deal with adding Web Services Choreography and support for an ebXML specification to J2ME. In addition, Java Servlet, JSP and J2EE proposed final specifications have also been posted.
E-Business Meets and Greets ebXML
By Tom Clements, Oracle Magazine
Bringing business standards and processes to XML.
By themselves, business documents present a flat, one-dimensional landscape to most companies engaged in internet trade. What's missing is a way to define business processes—order entry, inventory control, payments—that can process data in a standardized and consistent manner both within and across industries. Also missing is a way to define a set of unambiguous and standardized core components for business transactions so that there is no misunderstanding over what a particular piece of business data means.
By cataloging common business processes and workflows, ebXML establishes common message sequences that can be deployed across industry boundaries to foster global trade.
ebXML Initiative
The ebXML initiative is broadly based on two earlier initiatives, OpenEDI and XML/EDI, and now operates under the auspices of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). The ebXML initiative is an attempt, in the words of the specification, to "create a single electronic global market."
OASIS Forms Committee to Develop SOA Reference Model
May 3, 2005
Adobe Systems, AmSoft, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Fujitsu, General Motors, Infravio, NEC, Reactivity, SOA Software, VISA, and Others Collaborate on a Foundation for Service Oriented Architectures
International standards consortium, OASIS, announced the formation of a new committee to develop a core reference model that will guide and foster the creation of specific, service-oriented architectures (SOA). The new OASIS SOA Reference Model (SOA-RM) Technical Committee will promote the continued development of multiple SOAs and related standards by acting as a guide for those writing SOAs and an analysis of their functional components.
"The term SOA is used in an increasing number of contexts with differing -- and even conflicting -- meanings," said Duane Nickull of Adobe Systems, chair of the OASIS SOA-RM Technical Committee. "If SOA is architecture, as the name implies, then we should define it as architecture. The reference model we create will be useful for the entire industry, offering a way to preserve a common layer of understanding across multiple service oriented environments and architectures."
Specifically, the SOA reference model will offer an understanding of the core elements within a service oriented environment and the associations and relationships among those elements. The reference model itself will not be directly tied to any standards, technologies or other concrete implementation details. Rather, it will be an abstract, designed to be used as a tool by software and enterprise architects developing specific SOAs.
"In addition to vendors, there is a significant contingent of SOA end users from across the globe rallying around this work to define the basic, common elements of any service-oriented system," noted James Bryce Clark, Director of Standards Development at OASIS. He cited participation from government agencies such as Japan's Electronic Commerce Promotion Council, Canada's Public Works and Government Services, and USA's Department of Homeland Security, as well as users that include Boeing, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Mitre, and VISA.
The OASIS SOA-RM Technical Committee already has more than 45 members, and participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, especially those directly involved in the design, documentation, or implementation of SOAs. As with all OASIS projects, archives of the Committee's work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment.
Industry Support for SOA-RM
Booz Allen Hamilton
"Booz Allen Hamilton is proud to participate in the development of a standardized SOA reference model" said Rebekah Metz, Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton. "A cornerstone of the service-oriented approach is encouraging the growth of diverse yet interoperable implementations. The planned SOA reference model will provide a unified foundation from which the architecture for such implementations can evolve. We look forward to sharing the benefits of this important concept with our clients."
Infravio
"This week, Infravio increased sponsorship of OASIS to participate in the OASIS SOA-RM TC and future SOA work," said Miko Matsumura, vice president of marketing at Infravio. "As OASIS moves 'up the stack' it becomes increasingly important to Infravio and our focus on SOA customer's business requirements."
Reactivity
"SOA success requires a reliable and flexible reference model enterprises can use as the basis for implementing their own infrastructures to support SOA," said Andrew Nash, CTO at Reactivity. "Reactivity has been a leader in the development of the SOA infrastructure and believes this OASIS Technical Committee presents a great opportunity to for all vendors to align their efforts to simplify SOA for the enterprise."
SOA Software
"As a leader in Service Oriented Architecture Infrastructure, we are focused on rapid implementation and adoption of emerging standards and are deeply committed to the standards process," said Roberto Medrano, Executive Vice President at SOA Software. "The SOA reference model will promote a deeper understanding of the value employing a correctly designed service-oriented architecture can bring to large enterprise and government organizations."
About OASIS
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces open standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 4,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, CAP, DocBook, DSML, ebXML, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM, WS-Reliability, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, and XCBF. http://www.oasis-open.org
Additional information:
OASIS SOA-RM Technical Committee: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/soa-rm
Cover Pages Technology Report: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): http://xml.coverpages.org/soa.html
Contact: OASIS Carol Geyer,
978-667-5115 x209
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
Get familiar with ebXML Registry
By Ash Parikh, JavaWorld.com
Learn the basics about the ebXML Registry standard
Summary
This article is the first of a series of short articles that will introduce readers to the industry's various Web services standards. These articles will provide a quick introduction to a standard, its background, underlying architecture, benefits, status, and industry adoption. As some of the content might be a depiction of the author's viewpoint, readers are encouraged to refer to the links provided in Resources to gain a deeper understanding of a particular standard. This article focuses on ebXML Registry from OASIS. (1,000 words; April 25, 2005)
Much like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), electronic business XML (ebXML) was developed to enable business to be conducted electronically over the Internet. Custom protocols and proprietary messaging formats between trading partners created a deterrent to the widespread adoption of EDI. ebXML, on the other hand, provides an open and flexible alternative, allowing enterprises anywhere, anyplace, and anytime to engage in meaningful collaborations.
The Benefits of ebXML for e-Business
Authors and Contributors:
David RR Webber, Mark Yader, John Hardin, and Patrick Hogan
Introduction
[ PDF ]
With thousands of users globally the ebXML infrastructure is beginning to enter the mainstream of business consciousness today. Born from a process began by two organizations – UN/CEFACT and OASIS – who each brought unique backgrounds and solution envisioning together, ebXML has created a new and compelling metaphor for conducting e-Business via the Internet.
The vision and model for better e-Business using open standards was created by combining the business knowledge gained from twenty years of EDI-based interactions from CEFACT with the OASIS web commerce and marketplace expertise of internetbased companies using XML. That model seeks to move from processes that are highly labour intensive to configure and deploy manually in a paper based culture to a world where trading partners can discover each other and then begin to do business electronically by linking their systems together using ebXML and the Internet.
Each step of this process is supported and enabled by ebXML through the use of discreet components that are engineered to deliver specific functionality. Each component can be used individually or combined as needed. Just as LINUX is widely used by businesses today to run their web sites and services, the ebXML infrastructure provides the means for open and low-cost global commerce.
The business vision is to create new ways for companies to trade globally in secure and reliable digital environments using methods that implement legally valid contracts and exchanges. Also for governments to be able to reach citizens and companies using public standards that provides open access. The ability for small businesses, not just large corporations, to be able to employ the benefits of electronic business processes is also a key requirement.
The LINUX communities, through organizations such as the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), have begun to incorporate the ebXML infrastructure into the LINUX operating system. The OSDL is planning to release two enhanced versions of LINUX (Data Center and Carrier-Grade) sometime in mid-2005. Projects are currently underway to begin the integration of an OASIS ebXML infrastructure component with the LINUX operating system for inclusion into these releases.
The rapid acceptance of LINUX worldwide and especially in high growth countries such as China, India and Japan, should fuel dramatic growth in the ebXML infrastructure as these enhanced LINUX versions become available. LINUX is in many ways the perfect vehicle for ebXML and the availability of ebXML enhanced LINUX versions will ensure that ebXML becomes a critical component in global electronic commerce.
Central to this ebXML approach is a set of federated electronic Registry services. This allows partners to discover each other and more importantly to store central definitions and the components that are needed to configure the interchange between them. These can then also be catalogued and shared across an industry community. Just as with file sharing peer-to-peer networks there has to be central nodes that coordinate and facilitate each member’s activities and in ebXML the registry performs that role.
Aligned with registry services is the ability to define business partner profiles for business process participation. In ebXML parlance these are known as the CPA – Collaboration Profile Agreement and CPP – Collaboration Protocol Profile. These profiles then establish the formal business exchanges between participants. The CPP’s are combined together to create CPAs that document the formal agreement details of the business processes.
The next requirement is to provide secure and reliable communications across the Internet itself. For ebXML a special XML-based messaging transport system based on using the XML SOAP server foundation was developed. This is known as ebMS (ebXML Messaging Service) and is universally the most common component used by implementers of ebXML. The ebMS server has now evolved into a sophisticated integration component (see figure 1 below) that not only exchanges messages but also checks trading partner profiles to ensure that the exchanges conform to the business agreements and are being routed accordingly. In the latest version it can also perform business rule checking services and interact with web service based components that conform to the ebXML exchange requirements.
Put together these components today are being used to deploy a variety of business solutions. Examples include supply of spare parts and maintenance support for the Metro Rail in Hong Kong; Banking and Insurance services in Korea; in Australia the Electricity and Gas supply in Sydney and small farmers selling wheat to cooperatives; raw steel distribution in Europe’s 24x7 steel marketplace; the US DOD EMALL for logistics parts purchase; State of Texas electricity distribution marketplace; and Volkswagen is working on using ebXML to cut costs to its dealerships and suppliers worldwide. These examples illustrate the range from small to large configurations.
Next we look at how specifically ebXML is being used in these environments.
The Classic ebXML model
This then forms the basis for what we can call ‘classic ebXML’, ebMS with CPAs controlling transaction exchange based processes between partners. While there is some limited involvement of Registry services in certain deployments the majority of implementations are done without using a formal Registry, instead websites perform the role of registry facilitation. The classic ebXML approach has proved its worth by also being the basis of a formal certification program for ebMS implementations. UCCNet provides this certification in cooperation with the eBusinessReady.org service. Now customers are able to purchase solutions that are guaranteed to be interoperable with each other. This is a critical advantage that ebXML has today.
Figure 1 – classic ebXML deployment components
Using this classic ebXML model implementers create two-player business exchanges. An archetypal exchange is that of purchase orders, shipping notices and invoices between a buyer and a seller. In figure 2 below we see the activity model for such a Requester / Responder configuration that is supported using the classic ebXML components.
The individual main steps are ‘Create Order’ and ‘Order Fulfillment’, along with the business transactions that enable those. There is an initiating request from the requester partner, and then the responder replies with a selection of transactions depending on the business state of the interaction, either rejecting or confirming the order accordingly.
The ‘join’ indicates that the process will only proceed when both an order confirmation and a ship delivery notice have been received. The ‘fork’ allows more than one action depending on a condition. In this case either a payment notice has to be created or not, based on the requirement of the particular supplier’s application system (if it can reconcile electronic payments, or requires information to be able to reconcile them).
Figure 2 – classic ebXML Requester / Responder business activity model [click for image]
![Figure 2 – classic ebXML Requester / Responder business activity model [click for image]](http://healthcare.xml.org/resources/Benefits_of_ebXML_for_e-Business/figure_2.gif){kind=link}
Figure 2 here shows various steps and business transaction exchanges involved in completing the sample purchase, delivery and payment for goods.
Advocates of web services have borrowed from this classic ebXML model with some important and critical differences. Web services are not based around formal business transaction exchanges but just fragments of information within an XML instance and instead of the formal CPA business agreements; they use WSDL (Web Service Description Language) scripts that are a programming device for describing the connections and software services, but not the business function. The failure and success guard conditions are not formally defined for a WSDL based exchange. Also web services are intended to perform in real-time as instant interaction points, whereas ebXML messaging can also exploit a batch operating mode with persistent and guaranteed authenticated message delivery. Instant interaction is also a tougher environment to manage, often exposing implementers to higher risks of exploitation through unscrupulous users of the Internet itself.
Delivering Enhanced ebXML
So far we have looked at ebXML being used in traditional environments where the interactions follow the same patterns validated by EDI systems for over twenty years. However the next level of integration reaches out to a wider world that is being created by advances in technology including mobile computing, wireless networking, and global communications combined with Internet-based marketplaces. This world creates complex multi-faceted multi-layered interactions between partners and services, including both traditional services and web services (such as credit validation, stock price lookup, and airline seat availability and so on). These multi-step processes cannot be modelled using just a simple request/response interaction paradigm alone.
Bringing the world of classic ebXML together with the web service instant interaction model is the challenge facing the industry today. Fortunately ebXML began the process of providing the necessary components in its initial foundation work. We will now look how this is coming into the forefront of enabling these next generation systems.
In order to formalize the interaction between partners ebXML also developed a Business Process Specification Schema - BPSS component. This works in tandem with the ebMS and CPA by capturing the specific steps needed to complete a whole interaction between many participants. Classic ebXML finesses this in implementations today by using a common binary requester / responder model that works for most simple exchange patterns in business involving two parties, or that can be modelled as sets of such ‘twoplayer’ exchanges. Now however BPSS V2 is available and this is set to alter the whole landscape of business process engineering by providing the means to model and deploy sophisticated reliable and robust exchanges between multiple parties, not just limited to two.
This ‘enhanced ebXML’ provides the means to completely define a true Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) solution, including not just ebXML but also web service components in a holistic way. Figure 3 shows a deployment of this enhanced ebXML today.
Figure 3 – enhanced ebXML for SOA solutions [click for image]
![Figure 3 – enhanced ebXML for SOA solutions [click for image]](http://healthcare.xml.org/resources/Benefits_of_ebXML_for_e-Business/figure_3.gif){kind=link}
To support enhanced ebXML the new BPSS V2 provides key functionality that is once again groundbreaking for e-Business via the Internet. The first change allows roles and steps to be defined for multiple participants along with process forks and joins and thus extends the original ‘two-player’ ebXML exchanges to include extended interactions between many partners. But instead of this being more confusing spaghetti of complex flows, the BPSS approach forces constrained deterministic business process steps to be defined between participants with single entry and exit points. The activity diagram in Figure 4 below shows how this works. This is crucial for defining real usable and enforceable business agreements. Now industry groups have the means to define exchanges for their members that can be re-usable and stable.
However building such exchange models in the past has been difficult because of the need to support local customization and variables. Again BPSS V2 provides the answer through managing context across the whole business process by participant (item #4 in figure 3 above). This allows local conditions to be resolved and special requirements to be integrated seamlessly. Local players in a marketplace can individually configure their own special context requirements and tie those to their role and exchanges.
The third piece that BPSS V2 adds is the ability to integrate into the application layer provided by existing business application systems. By providing context in a formal XML-based way – the BPSS can pass that context to the underlying integration systems. In addition logical business transaction handling can be mapping to physical integration services directly using the document definitions that BPSS provides. OASIS has also developed an open source solution to even further expedite this called the OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) that uses simple XML-based scripts to document the business rules needed (item #5 in figure 3 above). Simply put these give participants the ability to pre-packaged information integration scripts in XML and then share those. This greatly enhances the consistent information flow between partners systems.
Put together this allows business users to now use the Registry services to fully document their end-to-end exchanges using XML structures as a coherent package. A typical such package can contain CPA, BPSS and CAM definitions along with traditional ubiquitous XML tools such as transaction schemas defined in either XSD or DTD syntax. By sharing such a package across an industry this allows partners to quickly configure their own ebXML systems and begin doing business, rather than having to endure a long and costly setup.
To accommodate web service based interactions, BPSS V2 also provides an ability to include WSDL-based steps into a BPSS model (item #9 in figure 3 above). These use a limited interaction model that provides the means to control and manage those steps using the ebXML approach. This does not include all web services, but only this discreet set of formally structured web service interactions. The key is to provide a deterministic and known business implementation where all end-conditions are known in advance.
Put together this enhanced ebXML provides the most complete e-Business services environment available today. BPSS sits at heart of the components and conducts the orchestra of components. Providing business context, transaction integration, process management, partner role details and deterministic transport messaging delivery flows.
Using this model figure 4 shows a complex multiparty interaction and how the components and participants interact together.
Figure 4 – Multi-party business collaboration using ebXML [click for image]
![Figure 4 – Multi-party business collaboration using ebXML [click for image]](http://healthcare.xml.org/resources/Benefits_of_ebXML_for_e-Business/figure_4.gif){kind=link}
Figure 4 includes a multi-step interaction sample exchange between participants in an automotive industry supply-chain marketplace. Included in the diagram is the car dealership that is requesting a part supply, the manufacturer (General Motors) then querying their partners (Eaton, MetalDyne) and the automotive marketplace (Covisint). After consolidating the replies on parts available and price, they then notify the dealer who then confirms the order. The ship notices from the delivery carrier are then forwarded to the dealership. Being able to manage such as complex interaction, and allow each participant to configure their own profiles and business context parameters, along with message details (EDI or XML) is what the new enhanced ebXML systems are capable of directing. For more details on how to model all the aspects of the multi-party interaction, that enhance and compliment the activity diagram shown in figure 4, see the BPSS tutorial available online from the BPSS resource sites noted below.
Summary
Enhanced ebXML provides a timely and important next step for ebXML deployments worldwide. This coming year will see increasingly sophisticated usage of the ebXML solution stack of components meeting the expanding demand for reliable and proven e- Business solutions based on open public standards.
Beyond today’s enhanced ebXML there are many more interesting aspects being worked on for ebXML that will be available in the future. Included in this is the integration of semantic web capabilities into ebXML Registry and ability to define core component libraries and vocabularies of business nouns. These tools will allow whole industries to deploy common foundation services based on coherent semantics.
Also important is the front-office facing development being done to provide a uniform e- Service infrastructure for citizen and customer facing applications. This work is based on the original Electronic Process (EPR) project funded in Europe (see http://eprforum.org ) and is using the ebXML infrastructure to provide the linkage to the back-office systems. Related to this is the Business-Centric Methodology (BCM) work of OASIS that is seeking to provide catalogues of proven templates for business users to be able to adapt and exploit ebXML-based systems (see http://businesscentricmethodology.com and OASIS).
There are many more challenges ahead for the development of e-Business systems including the need to integrate RFID and Wireless mobile device based solutions but today we see that ebXML is evolving to meet these challenges. This development is not based on simply bolting-on technology however. Any new additions to ebXML are founded on the core concepts that are the strength of ebXML. The need is to provide secure, reliable, predictable and robust real business mechanisms and agreements that can meet the rigorous needs of business today.
Resources and Terms
Latest news on global ebXML developments – http://www.ebXMLforum.org
Reference site to classic ebXML – http://www.ebxml.org
List of available ebXML tools – http://www.ebxml.org/tools/
List of example ebXML implementations – http://www.ebxml.org/implementations/
Annual compendium of ebXML adoptions worldwide – http://www.ebxmlforum.org/articles/ebfor_SoftwareProducts.html
Book reference – Executive Introduction to ebXML – http://www.ebxmlbook.com
Developers’ resource site – http://www.ebxmldev.org
Open source implementations of ebXML – http://www.freebXML.org
Linux Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) and ebXML – http://www.osdl.org
Operating Software Simplifies
March 24, 2005 Technology News Daily
XML Security and SOA Gateways, XOS 4.2 speeds authentication, authorization and policy enforcement operations. Additionally, it boosts overall throughput performance up to 50 percent with peak performance over 3000 TPS and supports more use cases, standards and protocols than any other solution available today. The Reactivity Gateway is the first to support compression for optimizing handling of both XML messages and their attachments.
XOS 4.2 introduces Reactivity’s breakthrough, patent-pending policy pipelining technologies which speed up SAML validation and policy enforcement by eliminating the need to repeatedly invoke time-consuming operations during similar Web services transactions. This performance boost makes it practical for enterprises to use layered identity based on the Reactivity Federated Identity Model in production environments. Reactivity’s support for GZIP compression increases the efficiency of XML processing when attachments are included in the payload. Broad ebXML support makes it easier for enterprises of any size, in any global region, to conduct business using the Internet. The addition of SMTP provides greater flexibility when integrating with the broad XML Web services ecosystem. XOS 4.2 also offers WS-Management vendor agent integration, strengthened administrative security, and back-end service load balancing capabilities.
“In February, we introduced the Reactivity Federated Identity Model, the first to ensure transactional trust and scalability for XML Web services. Today we are introducing the first software that makes using this model practical by speeding the critical SAML validation process,” said Andrew Nash, Reactivity’s chief technology officer. “Today’s announcement demonstrates our continuing commitment to deliver an XML Web services infrastructure that supports virtually every type of XML standard and protocol, and optimizations that accelerate time to market as well as production operations.”
DF Young Implements e-Logistics on BEA WebLogic Server
March 15, 2005 PRNewswire-FirstCall
BEA Systems, Inc. , a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, today announced that DF Young, Inc., an international logistics leader since 1903, has built its e-Logistics application on BEA WebLogic Server(R) 8.1, helping to provide customers with an interactive, Web-based solution that is designed to process and display real-time supply-chain information.
DF Young, a preferred logistics provider for Fortune 500 companies, is among the first to offer customized real-time global processing and visibility of supply chain information via DFY e-Logistics, a marked improvement over the current trend of commoditizing logistics services where single supply chain solutions are offered for all customers, ignoring specific customer and industry requirements. DFY e-Logistics has helped to enable DF Young to differentiate itself, helping to enable customers to view inventory details (e.g., SKU level and detail attributes of goods), see the precise physical location of inventory, understand how varying conditions or events may impact delivery schedules, and view shipment documentation. The BEA-powered solution is more advanced than generic supply chain applications offered by other providers. Additionally, DF Young is developing integrations for data exchange with its customers using ebXML, leveraging WebLogic Integration 8.1.
UK Telecare reporting at E-HEALTH-MEDIA
Faced with an ageing population and sharp rise in chronic conditions, like diabetes and asthma, health and social care organisations need to find new ways to deliver care. Part of the solution looks certain to involve embracing telecare services to remotely monitor, support and treat patients in their homes, improving self-care and cutting avoidable admissions to hospital and residential care.
Until now telecare has remained strictly a niche technology – there have been many pilots but its use has never become widespread or mainstream. But there are now some encouraging signs this may be about to change. As we report this week Kent County Council is to begin a large scale project to use technology to support people with chronic diseases in their own home.
Even more encouraging is the news that PCTs and Social Services Departments will soon be able to apply for a special grant to develop telecare, with the Government investing £80 million through a 'Preventative Technology Grant' from next year.
Microsoft, Intel Team to Target Healthcare Market
By Joris Evers, IDG News Service
Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. have partnered to create products and services targeted at European healthcare providers, who the vendors say have antiquated IT infrastructures.
The partnership to create an E-Health Integration Platform currently covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but the companies are looking to expand across Europe and possibly beyond, representatives for Microsoft and Intel said Thursday. The partnership agreement wasl to be formally signed yesterday at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.
Continue reading "Microsoft, Intel Team to Target Healthcare Market" »
The Top Seven Risks of SOA Without a Business Service Registry
Feb. 27, 2005 By Luc Clément, Senior Program Manager, Systinet - ebizQ
In recent years, there has been a steady migration away from non-standard legacy interfaces, toward Web services. By offering a standards-based interoperability platform, Web services allow enterprises to more efficiently integrate applications and improve the accessibility of business processes for customers, partners, and internal users. Essential for both business-to-business commerce and internal business applications, Web services are increasingly used by organizations that want to improve responsiveness and efficiency.
Yet the exciting new capabilities offered by Web services arrive with some risk. An unplanned, broad adoption of Web services opens companies