SCO, the corporate parent of UnixWare, OpenServer, and OpenLinux, today announced a framework to let developers and customers use its products to take advantage of Web services. SCOx is designed to let VARs and developers Web-enable existing applications based on SCO products. SCO plans to demonstrate the complete SCOx framework at
Web services, by SCO’s definition, “allow applications to share data and invoke capabilities from other applications without regard to how those applications were built, what platform they run on, or what devices are used to access them.” SCOx will enable client-side applications to communicate through the Internet to hosted applications that are themselves developed using SCOx tools. Programmers will be able to use SCOx APIs in development tools such as Microsoft .Net and Sun ONE/Java.
In addition, according to Simmi Bhargava, the company’s director of technology, SCOx will offer libraries for SOAP, XML, and SSL security. A software developers kit will include APIs that allow third-party applications to communicate with hosted services. A security management layer of the architecture will offer SCO Authentication, SCO Manager, and metering capabilities, along with digital certification.
Eric Hughes, SCO’s director of product management, said SVR6, a new version of SCO’s code base, will help support its operating systems’ ability to host and access Web services.
Some of the SCOx components, including the security, SOAP, and XML services, are already complete, while others, including metering, will be finished by the August conference. Third-party tools that work with SCOx, such as WebFace Studio and WebFace Server, will be available for purchase in four to six weeks, the company says.
“We are about taking complex technologies and making it simple for a VAR to deliver,” declared Jeff Hunsaker, SCO’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. He noted that the company’s products are used in more than 4,000 vertical applications, many running in key markets including medical, financial, retail, and telecom.
SCO’s lawsuit against IBM over Linux intellectual property they claim is rightfully theirs was not mentioned at any point in the telephone briefing session during which the company announced these new offerings.
