Iona Technologies has announced a major new product, with an off-the-shelf package enabling diverse software systems to work together. The company has also announced that it has hired the former Bord Failte executive, Mr Noel Toolan to head its marketing drive. Iona said it had developed the world's first fully integrated Object Transaction Monitor (OTM), which could deliver an off-the-shelf solution to the problem of integrating diverse systems.. The new design is based on Orbix, a best-selling system for integrating software, which the company already makes.
Orbix-OTM will be aimed mainly at large corporations already using Orbix, such as Boeing, ABN Amro, Bell South, Hong Kong Telecom and Motorola, Iona said yesterday.
"It basically makes it easier to build large-scale, federated systems. Prior to this product there was more effort required by the programmers and the system administrators," said Irish company's chairman and chief executive, Mr Chris Horn. "OTM is also more robust. If a computer fails, OTM allows the rest of the computers in your network to carry on."
Because Orbix-OTM cannot work independently of Iona's Orbix, he added, the development was likely to drive sales of both products. The current market for all software-integrating "middleware" is estimated at around $1 billion (£660 million) worldwide.
Iona is already the market leader in what is known as object middleware, and the new product will allow the company compete across the full sector. "I feel quite enthusiastic about the potential here with both Orbix and the OTM add-on that we can capture a significant part of the market," Mr Horn added.
He said he could see Iona becoming the dominant force in the entire middleware market within three or four years, or less.
"Our positioning is that if you go to Microsoft the basic message they give to you is to move everything to Windows," he added, "IBM will say run your business on mainframes, Sun Microsystems will say run your business in Java."
"We're saying: We don't actually care what you run your business on! We can make all these disparate pieces run together for you. You don't have to converge, you don't have to throw out what you have," Mr Horn said.
Iona also announced that it had hired Mr Noel Toolan as vice president in charge of corporate marketing; part of his task will be to market the new product to major corporations in the United States.
Mr Toolan resigned recently from Bord Failte following a row between the agency and the Minister for Tourism, Mr McDaid, over the new tourism logo. Previously, he had worked for Procter & Gamble and Grand Metropolitan.
