eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
SAN FRANCISCO-OpSource is rolling out a new multi-tenant integration service bus that enables companies to consume and publish multiple Web services in the cloud from both software as a service and on-premise applications.
CEO Treb Ryan said OpSource Connect, unveiled at the SAAS Summit 2008 here Feb. 28, is the first such integration service bus in the industry.
OpSource Connect, based on MuleSource’s open-source enterprise service bus, essentially lets Web-enabled OpSource customers make their data available on the OpSource Bus to all of their customers. With the bus concept, an application communicates via a “bus” or message broker between applications. A multi-tenant bus lets users write one integration to an application or service, and then reuse it.
OpSource is a platform company-though Ryan shies away from the platform term-that hosts SAAS applications for ISVs and provides add-on tools like system monitoring and metering. The company also partners with operating system and development tools vendors. Company officials said OpSource supports hundreds of applications, millions of users and billions of transactions every day.
OpSource Connect also provides connections to OpSource’s own set of applications, which include billing, analytics and end-user support. The billing feature-one that Salesforce.com has been working on for some time but has yet to release-meters service usage and lets users bill and meter customers based on transactions. OpSource bought its billing capability with the acquisition of LeCayla Technologies in February.
“Really what we’re saying [OpSource Connect] is about is Web service transactions in a true business environment, but integrations can become much simpler for customers,” Ryan said. “They don’t have to do it a bunch of times; they can do it once and it’s scalable and reliable and can expand business dramatically.”
Ryan plans to demonstrate the bus concept Feb. 29 at the show.
For integrating applications behind the firewall-typically on-premise applications-OpSource partners with two companies, Boomi and Cast Iron Systems. Boomi for OpSource Connect is a visual, drag-and-drop application for integrating Salesforce.com and NetSuite applications, two companies OpSource has built pre-integration APIs to.
Separately, OpSource Sockets-based on Boomi agents that reside behind the firewall on a customer’s application server-allow integration to legacy-type applications like SAP and QuickBooks. Cast Iron is an integration appliance that also sits behind the firewall to integrate legacy apps.
SAAS Hits the Mainstream
However, the actual build-out of the integrations still requires work.
“If [a customer] wants to do an integration with someone not already on the OpSource Bus, the great thing is I’ll work with the customer to write that integration and put it on the bus, then it becomes available to everyone,” Ryan said. “We’ll write it, or we’ll have partners write it. … It’s a matter of just doing that integration, but you do it once instead of doing it over and over.”
Integrating SAAS applications is becoming increasingly important as more companies look to include such apps in their overall IT environment, said Saugatuck Technology founder and CEO Bill McNee, who delivered a keynote address Feb. 28 at the show. A Saugatuck survey of SAAS buyers found that of those polled, 32 percent have at least one SAAS-based application and almost half have more than one. McNee estimated that large enterprises currently have more than 10 SAAS applications implemented.
“Mid to large customers have moved into a mainstream adoption era, where the focus is around integration,” he said.
Ryan said the billing feature of the OpSource platform is about 25 percent of the company’s overall business, but he’s unsure how much business the integration bus will drum up.
“First of all, we get paid as our customers get more customers so they pay us on a per-user, per-transaction basis, so if I can help them get more end users, I am going to make money,” he said.
“So out of the gate, some of these features are available. But it will be fully introduced in the summer ’08 release. So far, our customers that are already Web service-enabled, they can start to use the bus. In summer, we’ll come out with tools [to help those] that aren’t Web service-enabled to get there.”