Candle Introduces PathWAI Solution Suite to Accelerate IBM WebSphere Deployments, Optimise Return on Investment
Announcement posted by Candle Corporation 27 Nov 2002
Best-in-Class Modular Solution Portfolio Leverages Industry Best Practices, Consulting, Services and Technology to Streamline WebSphere Application Infrastructure Development, Deployment and Management
Candle Corporation, a leading enterprise infrastructure management provider, today introduced PathWAI*, a modular suite of best-in-class solutions that empower businesses to rapidly architect, develop, deploy and manage their WebSphere infrastructures. Incorporating tools and services, PathWAI enables businesses to harness the power and flexibility of WebSphere by streamlining deployment, accelerating return on investment (ROI) and enabling consistent performance.
The PathWAI suite offers modular solutions designed to empower enterprises to derive maximum business value from their WebSphere e-business initiatives. The PathWAI offerings span the total "build, deploy, manage" life-cycle portfolio - accelerating application infrastructure development and deployment, enhancing management control and minimising risk.
The PathWAI suite uses proven methodologies to align developers, operations staff and senior management. In addition, the methodology focuses on knowledge transfer and training, allowing enterprises to gain the internal expertise necessary to optimise their WebSphere investment and freeing them from expensive ongoing service engagements. "Organisations face a series of challenges as they move to develop new e-business application infrastructure using WebSphere and other technologies," said Corey Ferengul, senior program director, META Group Inc.
"First, companies are focused on e-business application functionality, as opposed to building necessary application operational infrastructures. As such, the first application is saddled with the cost for the entire build-out, even if others will leverage it in the future. Without huge corporate infrastructure budgets, the only way around this obstacle is to build application infrastructure iteratively in compliance with approved standards to ensure that infrastructure expansion does not impact application performance.
"Organisations also lack insight into the scale of the entire infrastructure, making it difficult to understand where to share and what to
leverage. To solve the problem, companies must invest in infrastructure planning (capacity, testing, architecture) and leverage this input across the enterprise," Mr Ferengul said.
WebSphere combines Internet infrastructure, software and tools to create, run and integrate e-business applications across multiple computing platforms. Built on open standards, such as J2EE, XML and the new Web services standards, WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ provide the WebSphere foundation. WebSphere foundation extensions include WebSphere MQ Integrator, WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker and WebSphere MQ Event Broker. Typically, Java is the focus of WebSphere deployments, providing flexibility to rapidly develop infrastructure to support a broad portfolio of applications.
"To maximise our WebSphere investment, we knew that we must focus on the complete life cycle - building, testing and managing the application infrastructure," said Don Buskard, senior vice president and chief technology officer at AXA Financial. "Our goal in retaining Candle to assist us with design support was to accelerate architecture testing and infrastructure development, avoid errors that lead to cost overruns and delays, and reduce development cycles and downtime risks by deploying an iterative approach. The Candle solution is having a visible impact on our time to deployment."
PathWAI Solution Portfolio
* PathWAI Architecture for WebSphere - Empowers organisations with the critical knowledge required to avoid costly architecture errors that drive delays and cost overruns; minimise new application development cycles and downtime risk; and ensure that final solutions meet required business customer service levels. The solution combines best practices with certified WebSphere solution expertise to architect the application infrastructure, security and monitoring components of complex applications.
* PathWAI Development for WebSphere - Validates the application infrastructure design and increases development team productivity. Components include pilot projects to validate that designs meet business requirements; development of components and connectors; and a set of utilities for the development of service-oriented applications and application services.
* PathWAI Deployment for WebSphere - Provides the testing and tuning tools, services and methodologies to help ensure that Web-to-legacy or message-oriented applications can be promoted into production at low risk to downtime and performance service levels. The solution includes application performance testing and tuning tools for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere MQ Integrator; and services and training to meet required business performance metrics. The management solutions for testing and monitoring WebSphere MQ Integrator and WebSphere Application Server are available on Windows NT, Sun, AIX and OS/390 platforms.
* PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere Application Server - Allows users to test, tune and monitor the performance and availability for the WebSphere Application Server and its Java-based technologies. The solution monitors the performance characteristics of specific servlets, Java Server Pages (JSPs) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) - helping accelerate time to resolution and providing a central point of control for intuitive management. Candle provides management for WebSphere Application server on AIX, Sun Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000, OS/390 and z/OS.
* PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere Infrastructure - Enables companies to map IT performance and investment with business impact. Aggregating performance information from PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere Application Server and other third-party tools, PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere Infrastructure provides a 360-degree view of end-to-end application infrastructure efficiency.
* PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere MQ - The market-leading tuning, testing, management and configuration solution for IBM middleware. It provides unparalleled control and availability across WebSphere MQ infrastructure.
* PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere MQ - Provides a single-pane-of-glass view of WebSphere MQ systems management activity, including enterprisewide configuration for WebSphere MQ. The offering allows users to map the effect of WebSphere MQ performance and availability on specific business objectives.
Proven Leadership
Candle provides a unique blend of tools, industry best practices, strong consulting and focused service offerings to the WebSphere market. Leading industry analyst agencies - including Gartner Inc., META Group Inc. and WinterGreen Research - cite Candle as the WebSphere management tools leader. Further, Candle has a proven track record of more than 2,000 successful WebSphere customer implementations.
For more than 26 years, Candle has been delivering solutions to maximise the performance of business-critical systems across heterogeneous environments. As a certified IBM reseller and Premier IBM Business Partner, Candle couples IBM products with Candle's enterprise infrastructure management products and services to provide customers with complete solutions.
"E-business application infrastructure development is expensive and complex - organisations are focused on getting it right the first time and leveraging their investment to the future," said David Caddis, vice president, Application Infrastructure Management Group, Candle Corporation. "Candle's PathWAI portfolio provides the solutions to architect, tune, test, deploy and manage WebSphere to create an 'infrastructure Autobahn' to e-business ROI."
About Candle Corporation
Candle Corporation provides solutions to manage and optimise business-critical infrastructures, systems, service levels and other information technology assets. By enabling companies to manage the performance and availability of their systems and applications across multiple environments, Candle empowers customers to align IT investments with business value. More than 3,000 of the world's largest companies use Candle products and consulting services, including 73 per cent of the Global 100. With more than 5,000 customer sites in 60 countries, Candle is one of the world's largest independent software and services companies. Candle is headquartered in El Segundo, California. For more information, visit www.candle.com.
Candle* and PathWAI* are trademarks of Candle Corporation. AIX, HP-UX and SunOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and Sun Microsystems Inc., respectively. WebSphere is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Other product names and terms in this document may be trademarks of their respective companies.
The PathWAI suite offers modular solutions designed to empower enterprises to derive maximum business value from their WebSphere e-business initiatives. The PathWAI offerings span the total "build, deploy, manage" life-cycle portfolio - accelerating application infrastructure development and deployment, enhancing management control and minimising risk.
The PathWAI suite uses proven methodologies to align developers, operations staff and senior management. In addition, the methodology focuses on knowledge transfer and training, allowing enterprises to gain the internal expertise necessary to optimise their WebSphere investment and freeing them from expensive ongoing service engagements. "Organisations face a series of challenges as they move to develop new e-business application infrastructure using WebSphere and other technologies," said Corey Ferengul, senior program director, META Group Inc.
"First, companies are focused on e-business application functionality, as opposed to building necessary application operational infrastructures. As such, the first application is saddled with the cost for the entire build-out, even if others will leverage it in the future. Without huge corporate infrastructure budgets, the only way around this obstacle is to build application infrastructure iteratively in compliance with approved standards to ensure that infrastructure expansion does not impact application performance.
"Organisations also lack insight into the scale of the entire infrastructure, making it difficult to understand where to share and what to
leverage. To solve the problem, companies must invest in infrastructure planning (capacity, testing, architecture) and leverage this input across the enterprise," Mr Ferengul said.
WebSphere combines Internet infrastructure, software and tools to create, run and integrate e-business applications across multiple computing platforms. Built on open standards, such as J2EE, XML and the new Web services standards, WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ provide the WebSphere foundation. WebSphere foundation extensions include WebSphere MQ Integrator, WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker and WebSphere MQ Event Broker. Typically, Java is the focus of WebSphere deployments, providing flexibility to rapidly develop infrastructure to support a broad portfolio of applications.
"To maximise our WebSphere investment, we knew that we must focus on the complete life cycle - building, testing and managing the application infrastructure," said Don Buskard, senior vice president and chief technology officer at AXA Financial. "Our goal in retaining Candle to assist us with design support was to accelerate architecture testing and infrastructure development, avoid errors that lead to cost overruns and delays, and reduce development cycles and downtime risks by deploying an iterative approach. The Candle solution is having a visible impact on our time to deployment."
PathWAI Solution Portfolio
* PathWAI Architecture for WebSphere - Empowers organisations with the critical knowledge required to avoid costly architecture errors that drive delays and cost overruns; minimise new application development cycles and downtime risk; and ensure that final solutions meet required business customer service levels. The solution combines best practices with certified WebSphere solution expertise to architect the application infrastructure, security and monitoring components of complex applications.
* PathWAI Development for WebSphere - Validates the application infrastructure design and increases development team productivity. Components include pilot projects to validate that designs meet business requirements; development of components and connectors; and a set of utilities for the development of service-oriented applications and application services.
* PathWAI Deployment for WebSphere - Provides the testing and tuning tools, services and methodologies to help ensure that Web-to-legacy or message-oriented applications can be promoted into production at low risk to downtime and performance service levels. The solution includes application performance testing and tuning tools for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere MQ Integrator; and services and training to meet required business performance metrics. The management solutions for testing and monitoring WebSphere MQ Integrator and WebSphere Application Server are available on Windows NT, Sun, AIX and OS/390 platforms.
* PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere Application Server - Allows users to test, tune and monitor the performance and availability for the WebSphere Application Server and its Java-based technologies. The solution monitors the performance characteristics of specific servlets, Java Server Pages (JSPs) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) - helping accelerate time to resolution and providing a central point of control for intuitive management. Candle provides management for WebSphere Application server on AIX, Sun Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000, OS/390 and z/OS.
* PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere Infrastructure - Enables companies to map IT performance and investment with business impact. Aggregating performance information from PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere Application Server and other third-party tools, PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere Infrastructure provides a 360-degree view of end-to-end application infrastructure efficiency.
* PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere MQ - The market-leading tuning, testing, management and configuration solution for IBM middleware. It provides unparalleled control and availability across WebSphere MQ infrastructure.
* PathWAI Dashboard for WebSphere MQ - Provides a single-pane-of-glass view of WebSphere MQ systems management activity, including enterprisewide configuration for WebSphere MQ. The offering allows users to map the effect of WebSphere MQ performance and availability on specific business objectives.
Proven Leadership
Candle provides a unique blend of tools, industry best practices, strong consulting and focused service offerings to the WebSphere market. Leading industry analyst agencies - including Gartner Inc., META Group Inc. and WinterGreen Research - cite Candle as the WebSphere management tools leader. Further, Candle has a proven track record of more than 2,000 successful WebSphere customer implementations.
For more than 26 years, Candle has been delivering solutions to maximise the performance of business-critical systems across heterogeneous environments. As a certified IBM reseller and Premier IBM Business Partner, Candle couples IBM products with Candle's enterprise infrastructure management products and services to provide customers with complete solutions.
"E-business application infrastructure development is expensive and complex - organisations are focused on getting it right the first time and leveraging their investment to the future," said David Caddis, vice president, Application Infrastructure Management Group, Candle Corporation. "Candle's PathWAI portfolio provides the solutions to architect, tune, test, deploy and manage WebSphere to create an 'infrastructure Autobahn' to e-business ROI."
About Candle Corporation
Candle Corporation provides solutions to manage and optimise business-critical infrastructures, systems, service levels and other information technology assets. By enabling companies to manage the performance and availability of their systems and applications across multiple environments, Candle empowers customers to align IT investments with business value. More than 3,000 of the world's largest companies use Candle products and consulting services, including 73 per cent of the Global 100. With more than 5,000 customer sites in 60 countries, Candle is one of the world's largest independent software and services companies. Candle is headquartered in El Segundo, California. For more information, visit www.candle.com.
Candle* and PathWAI* are trademarks of Candle Corporation. AIX, HP-UX and SunOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and Sun Microsystems Inc., respectively. WebSphere is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Other product names and terms in this document may be trademarks of their respective companies.