IONA announced a new integration testing solution. The Interface Simulation and Testing Framework (ISTF), which is part of IONA's Artix advanced SOA infrastructure suite, allows IT developers to test application integration scenarios early in the development lifecycle. With early detection and repair of software defects customers can dramatically reduce the time and cost of testing application integration scenarios, helping deliver their IT projects on time and on budget.

Enterprise organizations are adopting SOA and IT outsourcing in an effort to achieve higher output from their IT infrastructure while reducing costs. These initiatives coupled with the distributed development of SOA are challenging traditional application testing practices. Development teams are working in greater isolation for longer periods of time, with the result that integration problems are more likely to occur and remain undetected until later in the development lifecycle. By enabling developers to simulate end-to-end distributed application scenarios, IONA ISTF demonstrates how individual components will interface with each other in production allowing for the detection and repair of software defects earlier in the lifecycle.

"Early testing is a best practice for all types of software, because the cost of defect repair increases with time. But for shops pursuing SOA, early testing is an imperative. Testing services earlier in the life cycle delivers a high return on investment as the cost of resolving defects in deployed services can quickly get out of control. And the testing of client applications that consume services needs to start earlier, too, as defect resolution can take more time when there are more moving parts to manage." SOA Raises the Stakes for Software Quality, Senior Analyst Carey Schwaber, Forrester Research, Inc.

UK Mobile Communications Carrier Cuts Costs and Maintains Release Quality with IONA ISTF
Intensifying market demands required the Web organization at the UK's leading mobile carrier to deliver more services faster and at a lower cost for the company's growing UK Web site. The distributed nature of the development and testing put tremendous pressure on the group at maintaining the quality of the releases against the velocity of the changes. The Web group teamed up with IONA to implement an automated solution using ISTF that dramatically reduced the group's dependence on conventional testing systems and provided simulators for key systems early into the development cycle. The company, not only improved time to market, but significantly improved software quality for each release.

The ISTF solution allows users to create custom validation engines, enable proprietary protocols and orchestrate behavior across multiple simulators. As an extensible solution ISTF can accommodate both new requirements and regression testing, and can be used with any middleware technology, functioning as a client or server simulator. The solution deploys in light-weight, self-contained packages and can easily be shared with remote teams across a distributed enterprise. Customer development teams work directly with IONA's highly skilled professional services organization to customize ISTF, using best practices, for their project environment and deploy testing simulators that support the on-time and on-budget delivery of their projects.

"Issues related to system integration and deployment are the root cause of many IT project delays," said Eric Newcomer, CTO, IONA Technologies. "Testing scenarios specific to SOA are especially important because services are often developed in isolation, or reused as components in multiple applications. The highly distributed nature of SOA projects, often including outsourcing centers, adds further complexity. We're responding to customer requirements to address this challenge and help them deliver their SOA projects on time and on budget."