Intermediation technology is featured Focused on SOA, Xcalia next week will roll out XIC (Xcalia Intermediation Core) version 5.0, for building composite applications in which it can be decided at runtime how the applications access data and service resources.XIC 5.0 also improves control over how business applications are deployed and maintained.Featured in the product is a software infrastructure approach dubbed “intermediation,” serving as a dynamic alternative to static integration. A patented infrastructure layer sits between applications and data where business logic resides, so no code changes are required in base applications. Intermediation exceeds the performance of XML-based integration approaches, Xcalia said. Developers can focus on writing business application code, said Pierre Violo, chairman and CEO of Xcalia. “They don’t have to do anything in terms of writing the communication code,” Violo said. XIC version 5.0 can serve as an alternative or as a companion to an enterprise service bus.Other key features in version 5.0 include:* Support for Service Data Objects (SDO) 2.0, for accessing heterogeneous data sources in a disconnected model. * Interoperability between Java and .Net. The product previously was only Java-based.* A Web services interface to access database and service-oriented resources via SOAP. BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web services) applications or workflows can be supported with version 5.0.* Improvements in the product’s metadata language for describing service methods. * The capability of calculating the cost of execution plans to access data. Developers can dynamically tune, load-balance or redirect system access based on needs.XIC 5.0 is available now, although the .Net interoperability feature does not ship until late December. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business