Pervasive launched 200 adapters that offer connectivity services to higher-level integration technologies like Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Oracle Portal and Oracle JDeveloper. So far the company is staying mum on whether it will offer adapters for applications other than Oracle, but it looks to be staying close to Oracle’s coat tails as Oracle has agreed to bring Pervasive in on deals where customers could do with integration adapters.
Clearly few companies would suddenly be able to launch 200 integration adapters, and Rick Cloutier, Pervasive Software segment manager conceded that around 150 of those adapters are thanks to Pervasive’s acquisition of Data Junction back in August 2003, which built its own adapter portfolio over 15 years before Pervasive snapped it up for $52m. Pervasive has still needed to build the other 50, and has also worked on enriching the adapters so that they can act as coarse-grained web services, according to Cloutier.
Pervasive said the new adapter services aggregate, transform and sequence information from multiple data and application sources. Pervasive adapter services are claimed to act as coarse grain web services that can be combined into business applications and processes by Oracle BPEL Process Manager. Oracle Portal and Oracle JDeveloper can also utilize adapter services for rapid access to disparate information resources, Pervasive claimed.
Pervasive’s adapters offer connectivity to file systems, databases, legacy systems, message buses, EDI networks, web-enabled applications, business applications and industry standard protocols on numerous platforms. Customers can buy the entire set for $35,000 or buy them in packs of six adapters for $10,000.
Cloutier said that the company has previously been pushing more of a fully fledged integration platform in the small to medium enterprise space, but was approached by Oracle which asked if it could strip out its adapter technology to use with Oracle BPEL Process Manager and other Oracle applications. It duly did so, and set prices at levels that it feels make its adapters suitable for companies needing to integrate the last mile – in other words adding connectivity for file systems, databases, legacy systems, message buses and so on.
Data Junction never made a fortune from its integration technology: total sales for fiscal 2003 before it was bought came to $14m. But Pervasive is clearly hoping that with the right packaging, pricing and a more comprehensive set of adapters – not to mention a few introductions from Oracle salespeople – it can make good headway in the adapter space.
