Suite enables XML-based application integration Sonic Software on Monday will announce Sonic Business Integration Suite, an integration system based on an ESB (enterprise service bus) architecture.The suite enables is designed to enable XML-based integration and service management from a single control point. It enables businesses to connect and manage applications and services across an enterprise while reducing integration costs, Sonic executives said. The suite features five components: * Sonic ESB 5.0, for standards-based integration.* Orchestration Server, for process orchestration and intelligent routing of the enterprise service bus.* XML Server, for XML processing services for ESB-enabled applications and providing XML storage, query, and processing services. * Integration Studio, for visual development.* Adapters for Sonic ESB, enabling services-based interactions between ESB and more than 200 types of applications and technologies, including SAP and PeopleSoft, b-to-b systems, mainframe applications, and legacy data systems.According to Sonic, ESBs represent a new way to integrate applications in that integration processes can be independently scaled and distributed. ESBs enable scaling to large numbers of applications and services, including Web services. Sonic describes an ESB as a standards-based integration backbone that combines messaging, Web services, transformation, and intelligent routing to connect and coordinate interactions of diverse applications in distributed enterprises. “The enterprise service bus idea is that the deployment environment itself is distributed and federated,” said Gordon Van Huizen, vice president of product management at Bedford, Mass.-based Sonic Software. “So instead of building a composite app and then deploying it into a single cluster that’s typically local, I can build integration models and then deploy them out in this fabric which is distributed potentially across several countries. And we have customers doing that.”Sonic ESB features a clustering architecture for high availability in mission-critical environments, Sonic said. Additionally, ESB 5.0, the latest version, is integrated with the Sonic Stylus Studio XML development and test environment.Sonic ESB 5.0 ships later this month with prices starting at $10,000 per CPU. Orchestration Server ships in the third quarter of this year with prices starting at $12,500 per CPU. Sonic XML Server also will be available in the third quarter in standard and enterprise editions, priced starting at $10,000 per CPU.Integration Studio ships in the third quarter and Adapters for Sonic ESB are available now. Software Development