BEA launches tools aimed at integration projects
BEA Systems announced the latest releases of BEA WebLogic Integration (WLI) – a product designed to help customers successfully integrate and service-enable enterprise processes; and BEA AquaLogic Service Bus (ALSB) – a product designed to provide service mediation and management.
BEA WLI Version 9.2 features several functional and performance enhancements designed to help customers successfully and efficiently develop and achieve their integration goals. This includes an Eclipse-based development environment for ease of design and developer productivity, controls that are compliant with the Apache Beehive project; Java annotations based on JSR-175 for standards-based code generation; and a worklist module with a drag-and-drop design environment, forms-based test console, and out-of-the-box portlets for user interaction to enable powerful exception management in fine-grained processes.
BEA ALSB 2.6 features several enhancements designed to expand connectivity to a wide array of services, enhance standards support for messaging and provisioning, and provide additional configuration and deployment flexibility. These include the ability to invoke a database lookup directly from ALSB to support message enrichment and validation scenarios support for SOAP 1.2 and UDDI v3 automated import of business services to ensure that changes made in a business service registry, such as BEA AquaLogic Service Registry, are immediately reflected in the Service Bus.
Fluke adds features to EtherScope
Fluke Networks Canada announced the release of additional capabilities for its EtherScope Series II Network Assistant. The Security Scan and Locate features are designed to reduce the time to locate a rogue wireless local area network (WLAN) device by 75 per cent, as measured by the time spent on the same task using an omni-directional antenna found on most PC radio cards.
The WLAN Locate feature uses an external, directional antenna to quickly identify and pinpoint the location of unauthorized wireless access points. This includes access points in ceilings and on floors above and below.
Also new to EtherScope is the ability to test the performance of LAN and WAN links using commonly accepted RFC 2544 test procedures. EtherScope Series II Network Assistant incorporates RFC 2544 tests for measuring throughput, latency and frame loss. These tests are bundled together with EtherScope’s current Internetwork Throughput Option and traffic generator. Private network owners and service providers now have the ability to perform a RFC-based means of verifying network performance. Carriers can document the performance levels delivered to their customers. Private network owners can verify the bandwidth received matches that which was purchased.
Concurrent with the RFC 2544 tests and advanced WLAN Locate ability, EtherScope offers multilingual language support including Russian as a user-selectable language. EtherScope now displays its user interface, all desktop applications on the unit, report headers, and help screens in 8 different languages (English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian), making EtherScope Network Assistant a tool for the truly worldwide nature of networking.
EPE 4.0 speeds up location tracking
Ekahau Inc. introduced the Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE) 4.0, an upgrade of Ekahau’s server software that features faster and more accurate location tracking capabilities than its predecessor.
The EPE 4.0 includes a number of features designed to improve the performance of Ekahau’s turn-key RTLS solution. These features include probabilistic algorithms to deliver a higher percentage of accuracy in locating tracked items or people to within up to one to two metres. The software is capable of tracking more than a total of 10,000 objects and can complete 600 location transactions per second. The EPE 4.0 also includes a Web-based administrator interface and a deployment tool, the Ekahau Location Survey, for pre-survey and site calibration that cuts deployment time of Wi-Fi-based RTLS in half compared to the previous version.
The EPE also supports the site survey data collected with Ekahau Site Survey (ESS) 2.2, enabling end-to-end process from Wi-Fi planning and surveys to RTLS deployment. An HTTP-XML application programming interface (API) speeds application development and integration with third-party systems. The 4.0 version also enables tighter integration of EPE to support different Wi-Fi vendors’ network architecture, and enhanced support to Wi-Fi based client devices, Ekahau said.
The EPE 4.0 includes integrated tag management tools that enable users to monitor battery level, control LED and buzzers, and reconfigure and update firmware over the air.
Mirange servers pump up IBM’s storage portfolio
IBM announced the introduction of two midrange storage servers, the DS4700 Express, Models 70-DC and 72-DC. The models, as well as the enhanced IBM System Storage DS4000 EXP810, are now Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) Level 3-compliant and optimally suited for environments with strict requirements.
The new DS4700 Express, Models 70-DC and 72-DC, and the EXP810 expansion unit, a high-bandwidth storage system and expansion unit for mid-market clients, feature built-in support for DC power and are compliant not only with the NEBS Level 3 standard for U.S. clients, but also with the NEBS Level 3 standard for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
A bezel attachment option is also available for the enhanced DS4700 Express models as well as for the EXP810 expansion unit. This option contains an air filter that helps prevent harmful airborne particles from entering the DS4700 or EXP810 enclosure when these units are installed in rugged environments, such as earthquake-prone areas or buildings with significant amounts of dust and debris, often found in the oil and gas industries.
The enhanced DS4700 Express series is designed to provide users with high performance and connectivity with connectivity to 4 Gbps attached host systems, in addition to 16 disk drive bays inside the controller and up to eight host ports. Clients can attach EXP810 expansion units, each containing another 16 drive bays, to the back-end to scale up to 56TB of physical capacity and 112 drives. The DS4700 Express will be available in two versions, Models 70-DC and 72-DC, which will feature different amounts of cache and number of host ports.
The enhanced IBM System Storage DS4700 Express Models, 70-DC and 72-DC, will start at list prices of $26,100 and $52,000, respectively. The IBM System Storage DS4000 EXP810 will start at a list price of $12,100.
