By William Fellows
PeopleSoft application integration specialist SmartDB Corp is one of a slew of EAI companies that have joined the recently-formed Enterprise Integration Standards Council, although it would have preferred the group have stuck to its original guns and made a play for EAI standards. The Council dropped the standards word from its name because it didn’t want people to think it was developing new standards, but SmartDB thinks it could have created a climate in which some real unanimity could be found, even it were to come from the user community, from where most of the industry’s standards such as they exist, are driven, SmartDB believes.
EIC also appears to draw heavily from a datawarehouse background, SmartDB notes, which is not necessarily the best starting point for creating common EAI methods and frameworks. EAI is already so customizable, SmartDB observes. ISVs have been rolling hand-made APIs for years. It would have been quite happy for EIC to try and create a stovepipe reference kit for EAI, even if, as it believes, EIC’s chances of success would have been small. SmartDB has just hired itself former Oracle e-commerce senior director Jonathon Fomook, who has also been with WebLogic and Sun, as its new VP marketing. It also has some new integration work due later this month.
