Enterprise service bus anchors product line Sonic Software on Monday will unveil release 6.1 of the Sonic product line for building service-oriented architectures based on ESB (enterprise service bus) technology.Highlights of this release include a uniform service invocation model and a new relational database service.Also being announced are Sonic SOA Suite, a bundle featuring the Sonic ESB for application integration, Orchestration Server, XML Server, and the new Database Service product. With its new products, Sonic intends to accommodate the growth in SOA (service-oriented architecture) deployments. “More and more of our customers are building large SOA-based projects,” said Gordon Van Huizen, Sonic CTO.Featured in the 6.1 family is Sonic Workbench, which provides an integrated services environment for SOA infrastructure. The Sonic Database Service integrates relational data sources into an SOA, offering connectivity with major databases.Sonic Collaboration Server is a b-to-b server enabling the ESB to manage partner profiles and integrate business partners. Sonic XML Server provides for operational data processing and storage, whereas the company’s Orchestration Server product orchestrates services across an enterprise.“In terms of ESB, I think [Sonic] probably has the clearest vision and the most advanced product out there,” said Shawn Willet, a principal analyst at Current Analysis.All products in release 6.1 are available immediately. Software Development