JBoss has acquired distributed transaction monitor and web services technologies owned by Arjuna Technologies and HP, and will open source them for the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite (JEMS). In one strategic move, JBoss has propelled JEMS further into the high-end market long presided over by proprietary application platforms, while at the same time making pricey, enterprise-quality middleware software freely available to the mass market, the company says.

The acquisition includes Arjuna Transaction Service Suite (ArjunaTS) and Arjuna's Web Services Transaction implementation, the market's only implementation supporting both leading web services specifications -- Web Services Transaction (WS-TX) and Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF). This implementation is also one of the few that has demonstrated interoperability with other industry leaders such as Microsoft and IBM, according to JBoss. The core Arjuna transaction engine will be the foundation of JBoss Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

"With this acquisition, JBoss is sending a strong, clear signal to the market," said Shaun Connolly (pictured), vice president of product management, JBoss, Inc. "JBoss is committed to enabling the JEMS stack for the high-end market and cementing its position as the leading open source platform for SOA, or service-oriented architecture. We're doing this by developing our own products as we did for clustering, embracing open source projects as we did for business rules and acquiring proprietary software and open sourcing it as we are now doing for distributed transactioning." Connolly was interviewed by SYS-CON.TV regarding the announcement and JBoss's direction in competing with companies such as IBM and BEA.

As part of the agreement, Mark Little, Ph.D., Arjuna's chief architect and one of the original creators of ArjunaTS, joins JBoss as director of standards. A distinguished expert in the area of distributed transaction processing and an active participant in standards groups, Dr. Little will spearhead JBoss' continued efforts in setting industry standards and lead technical strategy for JBoss ESB and the distributed transaction monitor.

He is one of the primary authors of the OMG Activity Service specification and participated on the J2EE Activity Service for Extended Transactions Expert Group (JSR-95). Additionally, Dr. Little leads the Java API for XML Transactions Expert Group (JSR-156) and works on the OTS Revision Task Force and many OASIS and W3C standards efforts. He is also the co-author of several books, including Java Transaction Processing: Design and Implementation, published by Prentice Hall PTR.

"JBoss is already a driving force of consolidation in Java and, given its ambitious vision, will likely be doing the same for SOA," Little (pictured) said regarding the acquisition. "The addition of Arjuna and HP distributed transaction monitor technology to JEMS open source middleware creates a powerful SOA solution for any enterprise. I look forward very much to working with the talented JBoss management and technical teams to solidify the company's leadership position in this rapidly changing market."

• JBoss Acquires Arjuna HP Software