News

WebPutty 5.0 Delivers Flexibility

Plus news from ARMTech, FAST Datasearch, LiveVault, and Transcender

• By Mike Gunderloy
• 05/23/2002

Consider a typical "enterprise" level application that pulls together a disparate set of components. There might be a DB2 database, some COM objects, some EJBs, and a middleware application server, as well as newer components developed as Web Services. Assembling such applications into a coherent whole has typically relied on large teams where very few people understand the "big picture." Instead, each expert understands his own piece of the puzzle, and making a change becomes a major hassle. Adding a new column to a database table, for example, can cause ripples of change throughout the middleware layer, the Web Services and the user interface components.

WebPutty brings several innovations into this process. First, there's a strong set of Discovery features. WebPutty can "crawl" an existing application, ferreting out information about diverse components (COM objects, databases, EJBs, and so on) in the same way that UDDI allows you to discover information about Web Services. Second, WebPutty understands how all of these pieces fit together and can help you manage the change. With WebPutty, if you change a database table, everything else in the application also changes to stay synchronized, right down to the user interface. You can approve each change or set the whole process up to happen without human intervention.

WebPutty interoperates with many different tools, from Web Services to UML designers. You can also use the development pieces of WebPutty to build an entire application from a specification of the business logic. Unlike some less-expensive tools (expect to pay in the low six figures for a full deployment of WebPutty), the generated code is completely functional, as opposed to stubs that need to be filled in by hand. WebPutty promises to turn single-tool developers into n-tier architects overnight by allowing them to think about applications at a very high level of abstraction.

The company's own numbers say that WebPutty can lower the TCO for a .NET application by more than 50 percent simply by making it easy to make changes. The system has already been used for applications ranging from court case management to wireless prescription management. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.webputty.com.

More new and updated products:

** ARMTech is a resource management tool for high-end systems running Windows Datacenter server. Microsoft has partnered with vendor Aurema to offer a no-charge version for Datacenter users.
http://www.aurema.com

** FAST DataSearch has integrated its searching technology directly with Commerce Server 2002 and Content Management Server 2001. The product offers modular and scaleable search features.
http://www.fastsearch.com

** LiveVault's new Virtual Backup & Recovery Network is aimed at small and medium businesses. It uses IP-based technology to transport your data securely over the Internet to an off-site vault for fully managed protection.
http://www.livevault.com

** Transcender is branching into the training video market with its new CertificationTrainer products. The first one covers the 70-270 exam for Windows XP Pro.
http://www.transcender.com/products/video.asp

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