WSO2 ESB 1.0 released

Today we launch the WSO2 ESB 1.0. You might look at this and at Apache Synapse 1.0 and ask what's the deal?

The WSO2 ESB 1.0 is heavily based on Apache Synapse 1.0. The reason they are both being launched within days of each other is that we've been waiting for Synapse 1.0 to go out before we launched the ESB.

So what is the difference? Well there are two main differences.

• The first one is that the ESB has an AJAX-based Web User Interface to configure it. This UI helps to create and manage the configuration.
• The second difference is support, training and consultancy. WSO2 is well-placed to advise, support and help you plan an ESB based on Apache Synapse and the WSO2 products. For many companies, the uptake of Open Source is gated by whether there is a professional services company willing to help them, and in this case we are ready!
• The final difference is that we have built an internal registry and repository, that you can manage using the Web UI. This means that you can store, manage and use all the resources that are needed - WSDLs, URLs, XSLTs, Scripts, WS-Policies, Synapse.xmls, etc, in a single place. This is - in my opinion - one of the key aspects to really building an ESB with Synapse (or any other product). We have further enhancements to do in this area, so keep your eyes peeled.

I've been asked a lot - what is the value of the WSO2 ESB compared to other products or projects, and I think there are three main aspects:

1. Performance
2. Simplicity
3. Pragmatism

The ESB has been designed to be blisteringly fast. Now we can't name names (because of the usual license agreement carp that proprietary vendors do), but we've tested the WSO2 ESB against a leading proprietary/closed-source ESB. Our figures show we can do simple routing 20% faster, content-based routing 30% faster and XSLTs 100% faster. We will publish the performance data soon. We have a completely non-blocking async model - even for HTTP and HTTPS, meaning we can scale to handle thousands of concurrent connections without dropping any.

The second aspect that I think is cool is the fact that our product is a simple 30mb download. You unzip it, type bin\wso2-esb and point your browser at http://localhost:9443/.

The third aspect I think is really valuable is that we've tried to prioritize the basic needs customers have first. So the ESB comes with built-in support for logging, failover, load-balancing, content-based routing, transformation with XSLT and E4X, scripting support and header manipulation. And you can monitor and trace every aspect simply through the Web UI. The result is that you can do useful things immediately.

You can tell I'm pretty excited about this, so take a look yourself. Here is the announcement with the links:

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The WSO2 ESB team is pleased to announce the release of the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) v1.0

This release can be downloaded from http://dist.wso2.org/products/esb/java/1.0/

Key features of the WSO2 ESB 1.0 include:

• The non-blocking http/s transport permits ultra-fast execution and support for large numbers of connections. Because the WSO2 ESB automatically optimizes the parsing of messages, it can perform virtualization and routing with sub-millisecond overhead. In addition it can support thousands of simultaneous connections.

• Proxy services enable mediation of services without the need for coding; they include transport (HTTP/S, JMS, SMTP), interface (WSDL, Schema, Policy), message format (SOAP, POX), quality of service (WS-Security, RM), and optimization switching (MTOM, SwA). For example, the WSO2 ESB can be used to simply bridge between an XML message interaction on IBM’s MQSeries middleware and a Web service call on a Microsoft .NET server.

• An integrated registry/repository facilitates dynamic configuration, meaning that administrators can manage the ESB without having to bring the system down. The WSO2 ESB also includes built-in support for external registries, allowing resources to be centrally managed and refreshed as necessary without having to bring the systems down.

• Throttling, load balancing and failover controls optimize availability and help to manage and maintain service-level agreements.

• The light, feature-rich AJAX Web-based administration console facilitates monitoring, management and definition of policies, routing and transformations.

• Configuration model support includes XSLT, XPath, Java, Ruby, and Javascript, providing administrators with maximum flexibility.

Thanks
WSO2 ESB Team