IBM to Support BPEL-Based Web Services on iSeries in Q3

Last week, IBM shuffled its WebSphere deck and issued new releases of its core Web services development and delivery platform. The newly named product, WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation (WBISF) version 5.1, allows companies to implement and deliver “services-oriented” applications assembled in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) using WebSphere Studio Application Developer (AD) Integration Edition V5.1, which was also announced and shipped last week. IBM issued a statement of direction to support WBISF on OS/400 this summer.

Before we get into the details, let’s get the WebSphere names straight. IBM has done a little spring cleaning with its WebSphere product line, which we can only assume was to streamline the brand and make it easier to understand. To wit, WBISF V5.1 is the follow-on product to WebSphere Application Server Enterprise V5.0. Also announced last week was WBISF for Developers V5.1, which is identical to WBISF 5.1 except it’s designed specifically for the testing environment. WBISF for Developers V5.1 is the follow-on product to WebSphere Application Server Enterprise for Developers V5.0. Guild Companies is not aware of any name changes effecting WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition V5.1.

WBISF provides a superset of IBM software tools for the purpose of developing and deploying Web services. As such, WBISF includes all of the features available in WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.1, including J2EE 1.3 support, Web Services Gateway, IBM Tivoli Performance Viewer, clustering, and workload management support. Additionally, WBISF provides a runtime environment for BPEL for Web Services business processes, business rules, application adapters, and other programming model extensions, built with WebSphere Studio Application Developer AD Integration Edition V5.1; the two products go hand in hand.

With the version 5.1 release, the combination of WBISF and WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition provides the user with handy new programming capability, including: BPEL version 1.1 support; “human workflow” support (when machine-to-machine BPEL connections just aren’t enough); support for “business rule” beans (for customizing business processes with Java and BPEL); and J2EE programming model extensions, which add things like extended messaging, dynamic querying, and internationalization to WBISF applications.

WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition 5.1 also includes some other new capabilities, including enhancements to the BPEL debugger, new visual condition builder to direct the execution of BPEL processes, and automated migration of process flows created with WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition V5.0 to BPEL. In addition, both WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition 5.1 and WBISF 5.1 both provide full support for all the new features introduced in WebSphere Studio AD V5.1.1, which includes support for Workbench V2.1.2, support for building Web Services Interoperability compliant Web services, and support for Java development kit 1.4.1.

IBM’s Software Group is also bringing Web services and BPEL execution to its iSeries and zSeries servers. In a statement of direction, IBM committed to deploying WBISF 5.1 on z/OS during the second quarter of the year, and on OS/400 during the third quarter. The product is already supported on Linux running on those two server platforms.

IBM also stated that it intends to support two add-on modules to WBISF 5.1 and its development side-kick (WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition 5.1) during the second half of the year. These add-on modules are WebSphere Business Integration Modeler, which will be used to model, analyze, and report on business processes occurring on WBISF, and WebSphere Business Integration Monitor, which features visual dashboards and provides a real-time view into business process flow.

WBISF 5.1 is now available for Windows, Unix, and Linux operating systems. WebSphere Studio AD Integration Edition V5.1, which runs on Windows and Linux workstations, is also now available.