DataChannel Inc has become the latest company to license Reuters Holdings Plc’s Tibco Inc’s Tib real-time messaging middleware for its Channel Manager intranet administration product. DataChannel founder, funder and chief executive Dave Pool reckons Tib will make all the difference to Channel Manager, turning it into a true real-time multi-casting product, rather than a mere push technology. The addition of Tib means HyperText Transfer Protocol sessions can be maintained, where as before Channel Manager, like all other push technologies, relied on polling – checking in with the server at specific intervals. These intervals are generally no smaller than 15 minutes according to Pool, whereas Tib enables packets to be sent out every second with each client listening in constantly. As Pool put it, 15-minute intervals is a traffic pig. Data Channel uses Microsoft Corp’s Active Platform for content creation and ActiveX components to push newsfeeds and software down to Windows 95 desktops. Tib handles the routing and filtering of message packets, and its message queuing insures delivery. It is used most in financial markets where Tib has become virtually a de facto standard. By giving its software away, Tibco hopes this will happen in the corporate market too. Channel Manager is going to cost between $30 and $75 per seat, and there’ll be flat-fee pricing for large users. DataChannel is likely to charge OEM customers around $5,000 per server. Pool also said the firm is negotiating second round financing from venture capitalists, having largely funded it himself until now.
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