UC4 has parlayed its expertise with data center automation software to Web services in a new product, released Jan. 27, that synchronizes Web service data with on-premises applications.
The product, called UC4 Agent for Web Services, manages and schedules Web service-enabled jobs. It creates a single automation platform for both legacy and cloud applications, said Fred Kohout, UC4’s chief marketing officer.
“Automation is crucial for businesses using SOA or moving applications into the cloud,” said Milind Govekar, a Gartner research vice president.
“CIOs are keen to capitalize on the elasticity and the pay-per-use model cloud computing offers, yet their key priority remains with the business-critical processes in their legacy environments.”
“This [product] is for organizations that choose not to run on a just-in-time basis,” said Kohout. “You can run a process every hour to synchronize data in bulk transport and implement a batch process.
“Developers do not need to buy the Electronic Data Interchange tools and do the expensive integration project that goes along with it,” Kohout said. He added that synchronization requires little or no coding by automatically obtaining methods and responses from Web services using SOAP and WSDL.
However, running Agent for Web Services does require that customers purchase UC4’s back-end automation engine, which costs between US$20,000–$50,000. The pricing for the Web Services agent is a flat $25,000.
The UC4 Agent utilizes complex event processing (CEP) capabilities to predict spikes and troughs in processing, and it makes alterations to virtual infrastructure to compensate, Kohout said.
UC4 acquired CEP software developer Senactive in July 2009.
