The adapters provide connections to Oracle, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards ERP systems; Siebel and Amdocs CRM systems; and Tibco’s Rendezvous application integration bus.
Roughly two thirds of the BizTalk customer base has at least one of these systems. Microsoft bought the source code for the iWay adapters because, with so many customers requiring these adapters, it considered them core to its business.
For iWay, the deal is a departure from its typical OEM agreements, which involve joint or reselling of adapters through partners such as BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Sun, Microsoft and others.
According to an iWay spokesman, Microsoft wanted to simplify licensing for the most popular iWay adapters in the BizTalk installed base. On the other hand, the sale does not impact other iWay adapters for which both companies are continuing to jointly sell.
