Not all APIs are created equal, neither RESTful nor SOAP-based. This can cause problems when trying to integrate applications from multiple platforms across clouds, or from clouds to the ground.

Java-to-.NET integration software provider JNBridge today has released JNBridgePro 6.0, a platform that provides tools and adapters for interoperability while removing the complexity of creating those connections, according to Wayne Citrin, CTO of JNBridge.

“The whole idea of using the cloud is mixing and matching,” he said. “Web services standards and REST don’t work for everything. Not all useful APIs are REST-based. Lots of legacy apps will have direct-access APIs, not SOAP or REST.”

Cloud-based integration hubs and brokers may have some adapters for software to hook in, but not all software, Citrin said. JNBridgePro 6.0 is used to create custom adapters for hubs and brokers around such things as .NET, PHP or Ruby he added.

JNBridgePro 6.0 supports Java and .NET interoperability in the same process, in different processes on the same machine, and in difference machines across a network, Citrin explained.

When using a Java client to access an application in a Microsoft Windows Azure cloud, for example, complexities arise because the Azure cloud drive API is not part of the Windows Azure Tools for Java kit that Microsoft offers, he said. JNBridgePro can be used to create a proxy between the client and cloud drive for direct interoperability, he said. Further, he said, “A lot of the complications Microsoft hasn’t been addressed in its documentation regarding deploying Java in an Azure cloud. We provide additional information around that.”

_JNBridgePro addresses another of the cloud’s complexities, that of persistence, Citrin said. In theory, an instance can disappear anytime when it’s based in the cloud, so JNBridge had to remove its licensing information from a registry and make it an Internet-based mechanism that imposes licensing limits on elasticity, he said.

“It can accommodate instances up to certain limits. If those are about to be exceeded, you can go to the website and sign up for more.”