Red Hat Adds Black Tie As Substitute For Tuxedo

Red Hat's JBoss middleware unit has launched an open source project intended to extend JBoss's transaction processing capability. The goal is to let JBoss substitute a Black Tie for BEA System's Tuxedo transaction processing monitor and mainframe legacy systems.

BEA is in the process of being acquired by Oracle in a deal announced Jan. 16, and Red Hat appears bent on giving BEA Tuxedo and other legacy system users an open source escape hatch, if they choose to use it.

The new JBoss BlackTie.org project announced Thursday will focus on emulating transaction-processing monitors that still handle many of the connections and relationships between large servers and enterprise end users. A transaction processing monitor still in use on the IBM mainframe is Customer Information and Control System, more commonly known as CICS. Transaction Processing Facility is IBM's high volume transaction processing monitor still used on mainframes in the airline industry. JBoss executives have not specifically named CICS or TPF as future targets.

The Black Tie project will build out C and C++ mainframe compatible transaction capabilities, making these systems and their applications easier to integrate with Java applications managed by JBoss, a Java middleware suite. Craig Muzilla, VP of middleware, announced the new project at the JBoss' user group meeting this week in Orlando.

In addition, Red Hat and an open source systems management vendor, Hyperic, said they are starting a joint Web software management project called RHQ at www.rhq-project.org. Hyperic produces a Web site management system, currently dubbed Hyperic HQ 3.2. The joint engineering project will seek to develop a common service management platform that will be used in each company's product line. Hyperic senior VP of engineering, Paul Melmon, called it "proof of the ability of open source to address the management challenges" of Web-driven business.

Both projects are expected to produce code that will serve as the code base for additional JBoss products. BlackTie.org may lead to extensions to JBoss Transactions. RHQ is expected to produce code for JBoss Operations Network 2.0, due in the spring, as a common services management platform, JBoss officials said.

Red Hat is in the process of building out a JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform to compete with leading SOA vendors and announced the first availability of it at the show. It includes the JBoss Enterprise Service Bus for integration applications and services; JBoss jBPM or business process management, for orchestrating components into services with workflow-based human interventions; and JBoss Rules, a rules engine for building and applying routing to messages based on the message content.