zapnote AVINON SERVICES APPLICATION December, 2001 Analyst: Ronald Schmelzer

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1 zapthink zapnote ZAPTHINK ZAPNOTE Doc. ID: ZTZN Released: Dec. 25, 2001 AVINON SCENARIOS FOR WEB SERVICES APPLICATION DELIVERY December, 2001 Analyst: Ronald Schmelzer Abstract Avinon has announced the release of its NetScenario Platform for the creation of applications that utilize Web Service building blocks. While other notable Web Services platforms focus on the developer or IT staff for the creation and management of web service applications, Avinon has focused on the non-technical business user as the point of creation for web applications. The NetScenario Platform fits well within Web Services Application Delivery strategies. All Contents Copyright 2001 ZapThink, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. ZapThink disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. ZapThink shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are trademarked by their respective owners and ZapThink makes no claims to these names. ZapThink, LLC! 11 Willow Street, Suite 200! Waltham, MA 02453! (781) !

2 Web Services Application Delivery Suites Web Services are individual components of application functionality built using XML specifications that need to be aggregated or composed into fully functional applications in order to serve a specific business need. Web Services Application Development (WSAD) Suites meet this need by orchestrating, aggregating, and applying workflow and business process to Web Services and presenting the end application to end users through back-end systems, web interfaces, and a variety of display devices. Aspects of WSAD include: Choreography and orchestration of Web Services into useful applications and business processes Inclusion of Workflow and Back-end Business Process Output of Web Services Integration of Web Services with back-end processes; or Use of Web Services to drive back-end transactions or user interactions across multiple device types Formatting of Web Services for display o Web / Portal interface o Client / Device interface Workflow is defined as the organization of processes into a well-defined flow of operations to fulfill a business need. The distinction between output mechanisms is clear: in back-end processes, we are concerned with machine-to-machine interaction, whereas with user interface processes, we are concerned with human-to-machine interaction. In this manner, portal, application suite, and client-oriented delivery vendors are different in their presentation of final Web Service application to the end user. Figure 1: Web Services Application Delivery Suites Position in Web Services Market Segmentation Web Services Market Segmentation Web Services Development Environment Web Service Execution Environment Web Service Application Delivery Web Service Operations Management Web Services Platforms Creation Test RAD & Reuse Execution Environment Reliable Delivery Application Suites Portal Clientoriented Delivery Tracking & Reporting Communities of Trust First Generation Source: Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC Second Generation Third Generation The main idea of aggregate Web Services applications is to provide an easy-to-use solution for use by business analysts who are deeply familiar with organizational competencies, market requirements, and internal business processes. These users are the ones, then, that should create applications based on business modeling, and workflow using pre-created web service building blocks that can be assembled to form a fully functional application. WSAD suites facilitate this development by providing a more business-level means for application development and delivery. Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC 2

3 Avinon NetScenario Platform A relatively new entrant in a relatively new space, Avinon has announced the release of its NetScenario Platform for the creation of online services or applications that utilize Web Service building blocks. While other notable Web Services platforms focus on the developer or IT staff for the creation and management of web service applications, Avinon has focused on the non-technical business user as the point of creation for web applications. In this particular case, Avinon leverages the familiar portal approach as the primary means for tying together web applications. Its main goal is to solve problems relating to interactive business processes, or namely the points of interaction between a user and a corporate enterprise including its customers, employees, partners, and suppliers of an organization. Line of business users who understand these processes are not of a technical nature, but fundamentally understand the required business processes. It comes as a logical next step that these should be the users that create business process-based applications for integration with an organization. The most applicable business for Avinon products are therefore those that require very short time-to-market or those undergoing rapid change. The NetScenario Platform actually consists of two major components: the Avinon NetScenario Studio and Avinon NetScenario Business Server. NetScenario Studio The Avinon NetScenario Studio allows a user to create business process applications, known as NetScenarios, by using a visual, web-based interface. The user defines a workflow-style map that includes functionality both for the programmatic interface as well as presentationlayer functionality. The users then define the fields, data input and output requirements. On a more detailed level, each piece of business functionality is encapsulated in a business step library, which are reusable functionality objects. These are then tied together using business process and decision rules, which routes interaction down distinct interface channels. Each business step can access internal and legacy systems, including ERP, CRM, and relational data systems. The entire process is created online in an interactive process with the businesslevel user. This browser-based environment is designed for use by business analysts and e-business consultants to plan, design, publish, continuously enhance and manage online business services (NetScenarios). Studio includes customizable solution templates to speed business service implementation and deployment. TAKE CREDIT FOR READING ZAP APTHINK RESEARCH ESEARCH! Thank you for reading ZapThink research! ZapThink is an IT market intelligence firm that provides trusted advice and critical insight into XML, Web Services, and Service Orientation. We provide our target audience of IT vendors, service providers and end-users a clear roadmap for standards-based, loosely coupled distributed computing a vision of IT meeting the needs of the agile business. Earn rewards for reading ZapThink research! Visit and enter the code AVDEL. We ll reward you with ZapCredits that you can use to obtain free research, ZapGear, and more! For more information about ZapThink products and services, please call us at , or drop us an at info@zapthink.com. Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC 3

4 NetScenario Business Server The Avinon NetScenario Business Server is responsible for making these defined business objects actually work. It consists of highly scalable multi-symmetric web-based business engine that does three major activities: provide for user interaction, functionally perform backend and inter-system integration, and syndicate content and functionality across multiple business servers. The server also provides basic user security, authentication, authorization, permission, and profiling services, as well as performance enhancing caching, session, and state management. While the Studio product can be interacted with by any web-browser client, the Business Server currently only supports the Microsoft Windows 2000 server platform and requires IIS 5.0, Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) 2.0, and Microsoft SQL Server The web-based platform provides a dialog with business analysts, collects or supplies the business information, manages business rules and process logic, integrates with back-end system, and monitors, manages service interaction. NetScenario Web Service building blocks are initially created by internal IT staff or other development staff and then become available to general business users. The vision is that IT staff will create custom web services step libraries, which can then be stored for future use. While initial coding may take some time, reuse of those components will dramatically reduce long-term application creation time. Total time to deployment is quite short with some data points suggesting only a six-week period needed to go from scratch to a working business process scenario. Pricing is on a per-server model. Since some design and initial implementation is needed, Avinon hopes to leverage both systems integrators as well as its own, internal services staff and subject matter experts. Market and Competition Avinon has been around since late 1999, with much of its experience in business process automation, workflow, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). They believe that while XML is being increasingly used to create Web Services for external consumption, the real sweet spot will be the use of web services within the walls of an enterprise. If this is the case, then platforms such as Avinon will certainly be a front-leader in the space. As such, Avinon has joined the advisory board for the UDDI standard, which aims to assist applications in discovering and describing the availability and interface of web services. The NetScenario product also leverages many of the existing web services specifications, including SOAP and WSDL. The company does face challenges, however, from other emerging web services vendors. The field currently is wide open and consequentially represents many different points of view how web services can be implemented. There are a number of vendors approaching web services from the portal perspective including DataChannel and Epicentric. Competitors include workflow and XML-enabled business process vendors such as Bowstreet and Microsoft s BizTalk application. Others are approaching the space from a programmatic perspective such as Microsoft, IBM, and BEA, while others aim for simplicity through a plug-and-play modular architecture, such as Cape Clear. Key Conclusions & Recommendations Companies looking for a quick and effective entry into Web Services application delivery should investigate Avinon for its simple and robust solution. Avinon faces competitive pressure from Portal vendors and other application delivery suites. However, the market for Web Service Application Delivery is wide open and opportunity abounds for companies to try various solutions. Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC 4

5 Avinon supports the.net and J2EE platforms, but customers should investigate the specific support for their particular Web Services execution environment. Profile: Avinon (December, 2001) Date Founded: 1999 Funding: Privately-held, Venture-backed by Partech International, Weiss, Peck & Greer and other strategic investors. CEO: Kamran Kheirolomoom Employees: 60+ Products: Avinon NetScenario Business Server Avinon NetScenario Studio Address: 301 Howard Street, 7th floor San Francisco, CA URL: Main Phone: (415) Contacts: Albert Fong Tom Clement Doug Mirner Related Research! Web Services Technologies and Trends Report (ZT-WEBSERV)! Epicentric ZapNote (ZTZN-0104)! Attunity ZapNote (ZTZN-0138) -- continued -- Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC 5

6 About ZapThink, LLC ZapThink is an IT market intelligence firm that provides trusted advice and critical insight into XML, Web Services, and Service Orientation. We provide our target audience of IT vendors, service providers and end-users a clear roadmap for standards-based, loosely coupled distributed computing a vision of IT meeting the needs of the agile business. ZapThink s role is to help companies understand these IT products and services in the context of SOAs and the vision of Service Orientation. ZapThink provides market intelligence to IT vendors who offer XML and Web Services-based products to help them understand their competitive landscape and how to communicate their value proposition to their customers within the context of Service Orientation, and lay out their product roadmaps for the coming wave of Service Orientation. ZapThink also provides implementation intelligence to IT users who are seeking guidance and clarity into how to assemble the available products and services into a coherent roadmap to Service Orientation. Finally, ZapThink provides demand intelligence to IT vendors and service providers who must understand the needs of IT users as they follow the roadmap to Service Orientation. ZapThink s senior analysts are widely regarded as the go to analysts for XML, Web Services, and SOAs by vendors, end-users, and the press. They are in great demand as speakers, and have presented at conferences and industry events around the world. They are among the most quoted industry analysts in the IT industry. ZapThink was founded in October 2000 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its customers include Global 1000 firms, public sector organizations around the world, and many emerging businesses. ZapThink Analysts have years of experience in IT as well as research and analysis. Its analysts have previously been with such firms as IDC and ChannelWave, and have sat on the working group committees for standards bodies such as RosettaNet, UDDI, CPExchange, ebxml, EIDX, and CompTIA. Call, , or visit the ZapThink Web site to learn more about how ZapThink can help you to better understand how XML and Web Services impact your business or organization. ZAPTHINK CONTACT: ZapThink, LLC 11 Willow Street Suite 200 Waltham, MA Phone: +1 (781) Fax: +1 (786) info@zapthink.com Copyright 2001, ZapThink, LLC 6