Our Unique Approach

Another important difference of Xcalia is our unique approach to developing and deploying composite applications leveraging SOA. While other vendors approach integration via workflow orchestration, XML aggregation at the data layer, or through an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in the middleware layer, Xcalia approaches integration by intermediating data and service at the business layer.

The first generation of orchestration tools typically rely on workflows or specific languages like BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) or visual connections of services (where services are visually assembled using a graphical editor). They are positioned as development tools and chains of services are pre-defined or hard-coded during development steps.

Other solutions use first-generation heterogeneous data integration. They rely on XML aggregation (the EII  - Enterprise Information Integration approach) or virtual data federation, where all data sources are seen as if they were a unique logical relational database. These products seem to be more convenient as they propose a unified vision of heterogeneous data, but this is still a very technical view of data integration (either at the XML or SQL level). In the case of the integration at the XML level, it also raises a lot of concerns about performance and scalability.

Another approach is to install an ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) between composite applications, services and data sources as the backbone of a SOA. This is basically an extension of the mature messaging technologies (MOM, JMS, etc.) that transfer data; it does not interact with business logic. This approach, based on asynchronous, non-transactional access, fits well when production constraints are not too demanding. However using ESB for mission-critical enterprise business applications is more questionable.

Xcalia Intermediation

Xcalia's intermediation approach allows for the easy access and manipulation of data and services through powerful metadata management and dynamic composition of business processes at runtime.

Xcalia's metadata:

• Describes services and how to use them
• Determines which virtual data model to manipulate and how
• Dynamic composition of high-level service (metadata)

• Service Method Model enables orchestration
• Critical at runtime to re-compose higher-level services
• Performs dynamic composition

• Service Entity Model enables
• Transparent access to data and services from business layer
• Portability between data sources without changing the application
• Mixing of data and services within an application

• Can be the foundation for an enterprise metadata repository

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• ++ Discover Xcalia's products to assemble, deploy and manage composite applications on the Java and Microsoft .Net development platforms
• ++ Download and evaluate Xcalia Intermediation from Java, .Net or any SOAP enabled programming language
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