Grand Central Upgrades Business Services Network
05/17/2004
Grand Central Communications, provider of Integration On Demand solutions it says “dramatically lower the cost, time and risk associated with business integration,” debuted enhancements to its Business Services Network. They include “the value-added option to connect trading partners, customers and hosted solutions into the Network via a private leased line; support for AS2, the internationally accepted communication standard for doing EDI transactions over the Internet; improved development tools, and a simpler user interface,” GCC says. “Because Grand Central delivers integration as a service, these new core enhancements are immediately available to all subscribers of the Network, without the need to install or maintain additional software or hardware.”
GCC offered the following details:
For those enterprises with unique security and privacy needs, Grand Central now offers the option to connect to the Network via dedicated private lines between the customer’s premises and the Grand Central Business Services Network. This offering is ideal for enterprises that want to fully leverage the benefits of Grand Central’s Integration On Demand solution, but require a dedicated, private connection to external partners or hosted solutions.
This new option compliments Grand Central’s recent partnership announcements with leading XML and Web services security and trust management vendors DataPower, Reactivity and Forum Systems.
“Enterprises want to maximize their choices for deploying Web services including the selection of connections, security, and integration systems. With dedicated private lines, an enterprise has greater confidence that the transport of their XML messages will be secure,” said John Lilly, CTO of Reactivity. “Combining private lines, Grand Central's Integration On Demand solution, and Reactivity’s XML Firewall maximizes integration possibilities and security robustness for high-value Web services.”
“Grand Central is driving the adoption of Web services through its standards-based Business Services Network. With its new private-line connections, Grand Central helps enterprises meet strict privacy, security and compliance policies in a flexible 'integration as a service' model,” said Mamoon Yunus, CTO of Forum Systems. “And as customers move to XML, Forum XWall™ is the perfect complement to Grand Central's Business Services Network for data-level threat protection.”
Grand Central’s Business Services Network can connect with any network service provider, so enterprises can select the carrier of their choice for their private line. With this new private line option, Grand Central seamlessly extends an enterprise’s own network, applications and business processes to those of its partners and customers.
“By supporting a wider range of connectivity and security options based on individual customers’ needs, Grand Central is making it even easier for more companies to leverage integration as a service and adopt a service oriented architecture,” said Jason Bloomberg, Zapthink analyst.
“For those customers who require the added security of a dedicated, private connection, we are very pleased to be able to offer this feature now,” said Ron Palmeri, executive vice president, product and corporate development. “In the same way Grand Central mediates the complex technical and business differences associated with integration, we also mediate and manage the process of establishing the physical network connection, so our customers remain free to focus on their core competencies.”
Grand Central’s Business Services Network has been certified for AS2 connectivity over the Internet through eBusinessReady™, an industry-neutral software testing program under joint partnership of the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) and Drummond Group Inc. (DGI). AS2 is the internationally accepted communication standard that enables EDI documents to be transmitted securely and reliably over the Internet, while ensuring compliance across the supply chain and distribution channels. Now that Grand Central’s Business Services Network is AS2 certified, enterprises requiring AS2 interoperability —such as the 10,000-plus manufacturers that have been mandated to use AS2 by retail giant Walmart—can take advantage of the industry’s only on demand integration solution, at a huge cost and time savings compared to alternative AS2 solutions that are delivered over traditional enterprise software.
Grand Central’s Business Services Network features improved Java programming tools, BPEL enhancements and an easier to use graphical interface:
--JavaScript Service – Developers can now write and orchestrate business processes in a freely available hosted Java environment that gives developers access to standard Java APIs that enable complex XML document manipulation, and a wide variety of networking capabilities over the Internet. This JavaScript service is an ECMA script standards-based implementation.
--BPEL Enhancements – Grand Central’s BPEL4e contains enhancements that give users the ability to parse and manipulate complex data structures, and provides a richer, more intuitive error reporting and handling system. BPEL4e (BPEL for everything) is fully compliant with BPEL standard version 1.1. But, unlike other BPEL implementations that only support Web services standards, BPEL4e incorporates all standards across all of an enterprise’s business interfaces in a single execution environment, including non-Web services compliant protocols such as EDI or FTP as well as SOAP messages.
--Usability Enhancements – The navigation of the Business Services Network has been enhanced to make it more intuitive and easier to use for enterprises and developers alike.
Core functionality enhancements to the Network are available now to all subscribers, and pricing is based on data volume and the number of relationships facilitated by the Network. Value added option pricing for private leased line connectivity is based according to communication infrastructure needs.
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