ACADEMIA

Sun Releases Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) Components To Open Source Community -- Sun Microsystems, the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, today announced the availability of a collection of WS-* components to help drive web services interoperability between the Java platform and the .Net framework. These Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) components are focused on the areas of security, messaging, quality of service and metadata support and are being delivered through the open source OpenJava EE community as part of Project Glassfish. In addition, Sun is simultaneously releasing a NetBeans 5.5 plug-in for WSIT to help facilitate development of cross-platform web services. WSIT is a key component of the internal project code-named "Tango" and part of the ongoing web services interoperability efforts between Sun and Microsoft. WSIT has been tested extensively with Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and provides a reliable way for Java technology-based applications to integrate and interoperate with the .Net framework - above and beyond the WS-I Basic Profiles. As part of Sun's ongoing commitment to improving interoperability with Microsoft products, Sun also announced plans to support WSIT in the next version of the Sun Java System Application Server. Developers using Java EE SDK 5.0 or Sun Developer Tools and technologies to leverage WSIT can get support through Sun's new Developer Expert Assistance service program at its Web site. "Microsoft is committed to interoperability between the Windows Communication Foundation and the Java platform. The work that Sun is doing with its WSIT project and our collaborative engineering efforts over the past year are tangible evidence that the web services specifications, implemented by both companies, provide interoperability for our mutual customers," said Andrew Layman, director, Connected Systems Division Interoperability, Microsoft. "Sun is committed to open source and will continue to promote transparency of software development and technology standardization. By open sourcing the WSIT implementations, Sun is providing next generation web services technologies for the developer community to help build, deploy and maintain cross-platform composite applications for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This work is the result of extensive ongoing collaboration between Sun and Microsoft engineers and marks a major milestone in our relationship," said Rich Green, executive vice president, Software at Sun. Sun and Microsoft engineers are closely collaborating to help ensure that implementations of WCF- based services and Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5) based services will be interoperable, allowing a single business process design to run seamlessly across the Java platform and the .NET framework. In addition, integration with the Sun Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) Engine enables developers to apply business logic and orchestrate complex business processes and workflows. The specific interoperable WSIT technologies that will be delivered within the scope of this open source effort are: - Quality of Service WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Coordination, WS-Transactions - Security WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-Secure Conversation, WS-Security Policy - Metadata WSDL, XML Schema, WS-Policy, WS-Metadata Exchange - Messaging SOAP, WS-Addressing, Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM)