Tibco pushes onto the Web
Tibco Software is taking on Microsoft and IBM with new push-based messaging software.
Tibco writes software that automatically routes--or pushes--financial information, news, and other data from a publisher to an individual personal computer. The software works on corporate or public computer networks.
On Monday, the company will launch TIB/Rendezvous 4.0, a new version of the company's flagship product, tuned for Web and data warehousing applications.
The new software includes fault-tolerance features, so that data isn't lost in transmission, and load-balancing tools to take maximum advantage of server processing power, said Mark Bowles, vice president and chief technology officer at Tibco.
Rendezvous is similar to other messaging middleware, such as Microsoft's Message Queue Server and IBM's MQSeries software.
The software is used to pass messages among various dissimilar networked applications. The software makes sure that messages are delivered across the network by storing them in a queue and forwarding them when networked systems are online and ready to receive the messages.
That fault-tolerant feature of message queuing software makes it popular among large companies that transmit crucial information across networks, such as banks that conduct monetary transactions.
Bowles claims that Tibco's software, unlike competing products, includes additional components, such as load-balancing tools, that make it easier for corporate developers to build systems.
Tibco has also been trying for the past year to make its push software one of the standards for sending information through the Internet. That puts the company in direct competition with Marimba and Netscape Communications.
Several companies said in December they would use Tibco technology, including Cisco Systems, the biggest maker of computer networking equipment. Cisco has also purchased a minority stake in the company.
The company earlier this year announced a second round of partnerships that will help it establish its software as a standard, Tibco executives said.
Tibco, based in Palo Alto, California, is a unit of Reuters Holding, the parent company of the Reuters news agency.
TIB/Rendezvous is priced at $600 per client system, and at $2,500 for a developer's kit. The software runs on all major operating systems.