GigaSpaces Launches Latest Release of Its Extreme Application Platform (XAP)

Newest Version Allows Businesses to Scale On-Demand; Represents Emergence of New Generation of Application Platforms 

LONDON, Sep 22, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- GigaSpaces User Forum -- GigaSpaces Technologies today announced the release of GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) 6.6, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of a new generation of application platforms and raising the technology bar for the middleware industry. The new release is a scale-out application server designed to scale predictably and on-demand. It allows businesses to cost-effectively plan for future growth, while always being prepared for peak loads and spikes in demand for their applications and services.

Unlike application servers available today, XAP 6.6 will seamlessly enable applications to meet any demand, guarantee performance under any load and transparently deploy applications in cloud and grid environments. With this milestone release, GigaSpaces is also introducing new product packaging and new subscription and pay-per-use pricing models that will make XAP an affordable and flexible option for businesses of any size. Customers will be able to capitalize on the economies-of-scale made possible by cloud computing.

"We have worked hard to develop a full application-server platform that is ready out-of-the-box to support existing applications, meet any volume of data and transaction processing and predictably scale to deal with peak-load demand," said Nati Shalom, GigaSpaces founder and chief technology officer. "At the same time, XAP provides a smooth path for our customers who are moving towards cloud computing environments such as Amazon EC2, on-premise virtualized data-center environments and hybrid environments that combine corporate data centers with external clouds."

GigaSpaces XAP 6.6 is an ideal platform for any application facing fluctuating, unpredictable or fast-growing loads, such as online trading, gaming, banking, reservations and provisioning systems; Web 2.0, SaaS and e-commerce applications; and real-time analytical, compliance and surveillance solutions. "Over the past several years, GigaSpaces has proved the maturity and innovation of its technology with hundreds of customers and mission-critical applications in the financial services, telecom, defense, media and on-line commerce industries," said GigaSpaces Chief Executive Officer, Yaron Benvenisti. "With the disappearance of BEA as an independent platform player, and the emergence of new computing paradigms such as clouds and grids, we believe the market is ripe for a new generation of vendors and technologies."

"Extreme data and transaction processing is becoming a mainstream requirement for all kinds of applications, and a new breed of application platforms addresses the need," said Massimo Pezzini, vice president and Gartner fellow at Gartner. "These emerging products have cut their teeth in the high-end market with its uncompromising demand for reliability, performance and scale -- and are now poised to bring these values to the mainstream market. New computing paradigms such as clouds and grids are accelerating this trend."

GigaSpaces XAP 6.6 supports common Java and .NET development frameworks including Spring, Mule and J2EE, allowing developers to leverage their existing skill sets to improve performance for existing applications, and simplify future application development and planning to bring new products and services to market faster.

"When we first deployed XAP in 2005, the simplicity of the development and testing phase allowed us to get a 100 percent return on our investment before even going into production," said Alberto Santini, head of business intelligence and math engine for wealth management at Monte Paschi Group. "Now, when in production, we don't have to worry about fluctuating loads because we can add or remove resources when needed, while running our applications simultaneously."

Additions and enhancements in the new release include:

-- Improved user experience

-- Support for standard JEE Web applications

-- Integrated support for easy deployment on Amazon EC2

-- Dynamic language support

-- Enhanced management and monitoring functionalities

-- Tighter, more optimized integration with Hibernate

-- All-new Apache-Maven support

-- Improvements to .NET and C++ language capabilities

-- Integration with Mule ESB
 

Availability

GigaSpaces XAP 6.6 is currently generally available and provides support for a variety of languages, frameworks and APIs such as Java, Spring, J2EE, Mule, .NET and C++. Additional information and download is available at www.gigaspaces.com.

GigaSpaces Technologies is a leading provider of a new generation of application platforms for Java and .NET environments that offer an alternative to traditional application-servers. The company's eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) allows businesses and developers to predictably scale systems under any peak demand, guarantee performance under any data processing load, and seamlessly leverage the economies-of-scale offered by virtual computing environments such as clouds and grids. XAP leverages open-source and standard development frameworks to speed new application development and simplify migration of existing systems from traditional middleware and application server technologies to new virtual computing architectures.

GigaSpaces customers include six of the world's top 10 investment banks, world-leading exchanges, market data providers, hedge funds, retail banks, leading international and US telecommunications and mobile carriers, global Web-commerce companies, five of the world's top online gaming companies, and leading Internet media organizations. GigaSpaces was founded in 2000 and has offices in the US, Europe and Asia.

For more information, please visit http://www.gigaspaces.com, the company's open-source community portal or the company's blog at http://www.gigaspacesblog.com.

SOURCE: GigaSpaces