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New Survey Finds Overwhelming Demand for Improved Governance as SOA Adoption Reaches a Tipping Point; webMethods Responds With New Solutions for Simplifying and Automating Lifecycle Governance WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Integration World 2006 -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, today unveiled two new offerings for service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance: webMethods Infravio X-Registry and webMethods Infravio X- Broker. Together, they form the industry's most comprehensive platform for addressing the entire SOA governance lifecycle, spanning design-time, run- time, and change-time environments, from the unique perspective of each user. The announcement was made at Integration World 2006, webMethods' fifth annual global customer conference, which is taking place this week in Washington, DC. Both webMethods Infravio X-Registry and webMethods Infravio X-Broker will be maintained on an independent basis as best-in-class products for SOA governance. They will also be offered as integrated components of the webMethods Fabric(TM) product suite, beginning with version 7.0, which is scheduled to begin shipping this December [see separate announcement: Latest Release of webMethods Fabric Converges EAI, SOA and BPM into a Comprehensive Platform for Business Process Integration, (November 7, 2006)]. According to a recent survey, enterprise adoption of SOA is reaching a tipping point. For example, while only a small fraction of respondents reported having more than 500 published Web services today, 80% expected to do so in the next 12 months. The survey was conducted in conjunction with webMethods' SOA Master Classes, a nationwide series of SOA strategy exchanges involving enterprise architects and other senior IT executives from Global 2000 enterprises and leading government agencies. In making the leap to enterprise SOA, these users suggested that governance would be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. Less than a quarter viewed their current lifecycle management practices favorably. While a service registry was the least implemented component of SOA to date, it was regarded as the most needed component over the next six months. In creating a governance framework, users also acknowledged a diverse number of issues that needed to be addressed within a real-world approach, including the creation and enforcement of internal standards for both polices and reuse. "The results of our recent customer survey were clear: Enterprises are seeking to create implementations that are strategic, scalable and sustainable in their scope and ambition, but are being constrained by their lack of appropriate governance," said Lance Hill, vice president and General Manager for SOA Solutions, webMethods, Inc. "What distinguishes our real-world offerings for governance is our comprehensive support for the entire SOA lifecycle. This allows enterprises to implement new solutions faster with full confidence in the long-term sustainability of the implementation." webMethods Infravio X-Registry and webMethods Infravio X-Broker are designed to support a federated approach to SOA governance as a means for improving long-term manageability while minimizing IT complexity: * webMethods Infravio X-Registry is an integrated registry/repository that serves as the platform for SOA lifecycle governance. It brings together a UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration protocol), v. 3.0 compliant registry for cataloging business services with a JAXR (Java API for XML Registries) compliant integrated repository for maintaining their associated metadata and policies within a user and machine-accessible format. * With advanced support for messaging and orchestration, webMethods Infravio X-Broker builds upon this platform with the added ability to apply run-time and change-time policies and contracts. These policies can address a number of real-world user concerns, including security enforcement, high availability, performance monitoring, service-level agreement management, versioning and audit logging, data transformation, and other Web services management and mediation capabilities. In addition, a patent-pending contracts manager, Service Delivery Contracts(TM), is employed to improve the configurability and agility of services. In addition to best-in-class technology for SOA governance, survey participants also indicated a real need to improve user proficiency. For example, less than 30% of respondents graded the SOA skills of their project teams "good" or "excellent." As a result, webMethods Infravio X-Registry ships with a collection of preconfigured policies, processes and profiles encompassing established industry best practices. This collection of SOA assets helps users more quickly, intuitively and consistently establish the "rules of engagement" for managing and governing services within their enterprise. "SOA governance is much more than centralized control," explained Miko Matsumura, vice president for SOA Marketing, webMethods, Inc. "Governance is about improving relationships between service providers and consumers by managing the outcomes of those service relationships. Recognizing that these disparate groups operate across heterogeneous environments, we've championed a platform-independent, standards-based approach to SOA governance. Coupled with our continuing support for the SOA Link as a cross-industry initiative for governance interoperability, we're able to deliver today best-in-class resources for making SOA a reality at the enterprise level." webMethods Infravio X-Registry and webMethods Infravio X-Broker will be available this December. At that time, they will replace the respective Infravio products currently being offered by webMethods following the company's acquisition of Infravio this September. Current users of these products are eligible for upgrades to the webMethods' products under their current maintenance agreement. Through March 31, 2007, webMethods will be offering package pricing through its "webMethods Infravio X-Registry Quick Start" program as a means for accelerating time-to-benefit for the integrated registry/repository. About webMethods, Inc. webMethods (NASDAQ:WEBM) provides business integration software to integrate, assemble and optimize available IT assets to drive business process productivity. webMethods delivers an innovative, enterprise-class business integration platform that incorporates proven integration technology with next generation capabilities into one interoperable set of tools that delivers a unique combination of efficiency, agility and control. webMethods combines industry leadership with a zealous commitment to customers to deliver tangible business value to more than 1,400 global customers. webMethods is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. More information about the company can be found at http://www.webmethods.com/. The webMethods name and logo are registered trademarks of, and webMethods Fabric, Service Delivery Contracts, and Guided SOA Governance are trademarks of, webMethods, Inc. All other marks mentioned are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc. CONTACT: John Conley of webMethods, +1-703-460-5996, Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/

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