News

Cape Clear tests new Web services platform

• By Rich Seeley
• November 6, 2002

To meet the demands of customers moving to multi-server, multi-service Web service deployments, Cape Clear Software is distributing a beta version of what it calls a next-generation Web services platform, according to Executive Vice President David Clarke.

He said IT organizations are going from testing the Web services waters to plunging into large-scale deployments. The new platform is designed to meet their requirements for deployment, management and security tools.

''We're increasingly getting asked about security, management and performance,'' Clarke said. ''This tells us that people are looking at serious deployments of Web services technology. They've moved beyond the point of dipping toes in the water.''

He said customer feedback indicates that integration inside the enterprise is still the main focus, with the size and complexities of those Web services projects growing and the ultimate horizon expanding beyond the firewall. About 50% of security questions are raised by customers looking outside the firewall, he added.

''The other half [of the questions], which I guess are the more tangible at the moment, are still deploying integration solutions inside the firewall but with a clear architectural objective of, over time, deploying outside the firewall,'' Clarke explained. ''So we continue to believe the tangible security interest we see is still focused around internal deployment and internal integration. But people do understand they can use this [new platform] over time with the same set of technologies outside the firewall.''

The beta release is code named G4 for Generation 4, and is downloadable from the Cape Clear Web site (http://www.capeclear.com).

'We've had this technology in a number of customers hands at an alpha level,' Clarke said. 'The requirements and functional specs were really written by our existing customer base. We and our customer base have tested it extensively. We encourage people to come along and beat the heck out of it and see what they can find.'

The final release of the new version of the product is expected to be ready to ship in approximately 30 days, Clarke said.