WHITE PAPER

FuseSource Overview Open Source Integration and Messaging Software

The FuseSource Team

September 2010

FuseSource Overview

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .......................................................................................2

Why Open Source ..............................................................................2

What Is FuseSource ............................................................................3

Key Attributes ..............................................................................3

A Family of Integration and Messaging Products ........................6

FuseSource Services and Support ...............................................8

FuseSource Community ..............................................................9

Open Source and Commercially Licensed Software ..........................9

Conclusion ..........................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION

FuseSource, the first family of open source integration and

messaging tools, is a set of standards-based, enterprise products

based on popular Apache projects. The FuseSource products are

supported by the people who build and influence the projects to

combine the speed and innovation of open source software with

the reliability and expertise of commercially provided enterprise

services.

The FuseSource products include four open source components:

Fuse ESB, Fuse Message Broker, FUSE Services Framework and

Fuse Mediation Router. The four components are combined with

development and management tools to create a comprehensive

enterprise integration infrastructure and are deployed in many

large, mission-critical IT applications.

WHY OPEN SOURCE

Consumers of open source technology are consistent in their interest

in open source. The benefits that they value include:

Cost savings—Users do not pay a license fee to adopt open

source software, nor do they pay for updates, eliminating the

large upfront cost typically associated with infrastructure

development and significantly reducing the total cost of the

project.

Vendor neutrality—Open source software is developed and

owned by the community. Users of the project are not locked

in to a vendor’s platform and are not forced to buy

proprietary modules or adopt prerequisite technology.

Flexibility—By definition, open source projects make the

source code available and modifiable. This allows enterprises

to better understand the code, fix bugs, and modify the code

to add unique features, and not be at the mercy of a vendor.

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Innovation—With a large community that includes end users

contributing to the project, open source software has proven

itself to be a practical vehicle for the latest technological

advancements.

IT organizations are typically risk-adverse and initially shied away

from open source projects. With open source technology

consistently proving itself in mainstream IT, more and more once-

reticent CIOs are embracing and deploying open source technology.

WHAT IS FUSESOURCE?

Key Attributes

Enterprise IT organizations have stringent requirements for

infrastructure software, and the FuseSource team addresses

these needs to bridge the gap between open source projects

and enterprise-class, production-ready software.

Stable Releases

Enterprise IT departments require that the software they use

comes in discrete, stable releases so managers can be sure that all

developers are working from the same set of bits, support the

software, and track and fix issues.

The Apache projects take contributions on a continuous basis, to

get new features and fixes to users quickly. While this is good for

promoting innovation and progress, it is a challenge for enterprise

IT departments.

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To overcome this difference, the FuseSource team takes a stable and

consistent snapshot of the Apache projects and creates a packaged

code drop that goes through a standard release process as shown

below. Any patches or enhancements created by the FuseSource

team are contributed back to Apache.

Qualities of Service

Enterprise IT department—more than most other software

consumers—have high standards for robustness, performance,

availability, security and other qualities of service (QoS). Although

popular open source projects are typically of high quality due to the

number of users working with and vetting the code, enterprise

organizations often require more assurance.

The FuseSource team performs extensive quality assurance tests on

the FuseSource releases tests that go beyond Apache’s junit tests,

including tests for typical enterprise configurations that have

long-running processes, multiple clients, and multiple machines.

FuseSource releases are also tested on a broad range of platforms

and for backwards compatibility.

Apache Projects

FuseSource

Products

Frequent updates

Packaged code drops

FuseSource distributions are productized

releases of Apache projects

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Licensing

Another concern of enterprise IT departments is the license

associated with the open source project. Some licenses are not

suited for enterprise or embedded application as they restrict the

use of the software and potentially leave organizations liable for

misuse of intellectual property. It is important for users of open

source software to examine the license and understand the

obligations.

FuseSource products employ the Apache license, which allows

developers to freely modify and redistribute the code. This license is

permissive in nature and is preferred by enterprise developers. The

Apache license is very popular for infrastructure software adoption

because infrastructure software is often customized and connected

with or embedded in other technologies.

Support and Professional Services

The most important concern for IT departments when considering

software of any type is how they will get quality support. When

deploying missions-critical systems, development teams need 24x7,

experienced support as well as training and consulting during the

development phase. Professional services used early in the software

development lifecycle ensure that applications are architected

properly and efficiently so that there are no unexpected problems at

deployment.

The FuseSource team provides a complete array of professional

services including enterprise-class support, comprehensive training,

and consulting delivered by experienced staff members. The

FuseSource team has over 20 years of experience solving problems

for some of the largest IT departments worldwide and employs many

of the key committers on Apache ServiceMix, ODE, ActiveMQ, CXF

and Camel. With these committers on the FuseSource team,

FuseSource users have direct access to the committers and get

issues resolved by the developers who wrote the code.

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Any patches or enhancements the FuseSource team makes for

customers are contributed back into the Apache project to keep the

distributions in sync.

Access to Committers

The FuseSource team employs many of the Apache committers,

including the “rock stars” and the project chairs. This is a unique

differentiator for FuseSource and gives FuseSource customers access

to the people who wrote the code. This makes FuseSource the only

group able to provide comprehensive, in-depth support of the

projects.

Backing by a Large, Global Software Company

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Progress Software, FuseSource

Corporation enjoys many of the advantages shared by other

established integration solution companies. In addition to financial

security, FuseSource has access to and the support of a worldwide

solutions team as well as to Progress’ comprehensive suite of

enterprise software tools. With Progress support, FuseSource

customers receive the depth and breadth of service required by

enterprise IT organizations.

A Family of Integration and Messaging Products

Apache SOA projects are built for IT developers, and the FuseSource

distributions are intended for a subset of those users. The

FuseSource products are targeted at large enterprise environments

running mission-critical applications. The FuseSource team has over

20 years of experience working with complex infrastructure at

Fortune 2000 companies and tests, certifies and supports

distributions of Apache ServiceMix, ODE, ActiveMQ, CXF and

Camel to meet the needs of this audience.

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The FuseSource products comprise a family of application integration

components, and distributions of Apache projects. FuseSource

products are always open, always free, and many of the committers

are a part of the FuseSource team. The components, which are also

certified, productized and fully supported by the people who wrote

the code, include:

FUSE ESB—a fully standards-based and open source

integration platform based on Apache ServiceMix and ODE

for use in enterprise IT organizations. FUSE ESB is robust

application integration infrastructure that supports the

business process execution language (BPEL) and flexible

deployment configurations including embedded, Java EE, and

standalone OSGi containers.

FUSE Message Broker—an open source JMS message broker

that is based on Apache ActiveMQ for use in enterprise IT

organizations. FUSE Message Broker is the JMS platform of

choice for scalable, high-performance infrastructure to

connect processes across heterogeneous systems.

FUSE Services Framework—a flexible open source SOAP and

REST web services platform based on Apache CXF for use in

enterprise IT organizations. FUSE Services Framework is

lightweight and easily service-enables existing systems to

leverage new and legacy applications in enterprise

infrastructure.

FUSE Mediation Router—an open source tool for integrating

services, applications, and transport protocols using

Enterprise Integration Patterns based on Apache Camel for

use in enterprise IT organizations. Mediation Router uses a

standard method of notation to go from diagram to

implementation without coding.

FUSE HQ—a management and monitoring system available

as a part of any FuseSource support subscription. It is

integrated with the FuseSource product family for real-time

administration and control of FuseSource-based

infrastructure.

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FuseSource Services and Support

The FuseSource team supports the products with a comprehensive

suite of enterprise-class services and support.

Pilot Subscription —When a programming effort graduates

from a casual test drive to a pilot or proof-of-concept

application, the collective experiences of IT professionals can

significantly reduce development and maintenance costs.

Enterprise Support Subscription—The FuseSource team has

built significant expertise in distributed, large-scale, mission-

critical systems and combines the benefits of open source

with the assurance of enterprise-level technical support.

Consulting—FuseSource consulting packages are designed to

make teams productive and self-sufficient as quickly as

possible. The FuseSource team guides organizations through

the entire lifecycle of a project from initial requirements

gathering, through architecture and design, to

implementation and deployment.

Getting Started Resources—The FuseSource team offers

tutorials and recorded demos to efficiently boost a project

team’s productivity. The current curriculum includes courses

ranging from how to get started to advanced integration

topics.

Virtual Training—The FuseSource team offers complete

training courses via the web. The course includes lectures and

hands-on, code-level exercises, and throughout the course

the instructor, a teaching assistant, and a member of the

services organization are available to answer questions.

On-site Training—The FuseSource team offers in-person

training at the location of the development team’s choice for

up to 10 students. Courses can be customized to meet

individual needs and optionally include training lab

equipment. Courses include an intensive set of lectures,

hands-on exercises and detailed reference notes.

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FuseSource Community

A key ingredient in any open source product is a thriving community.

FuseSource users not only have the Apache community behind the

technology, but also have the FuseSource community behind the

enterprise distributions. The FuseSource community offers forums,

a wiki, enhanced documentation and notifications of updates and

events. Members of the FuseSource team, including the leaders and

committers at Apache, participate heavily, giving community

members access to those who influence the projects.

To join the FuseSource community, register at

fusesource.com/register.

OPEN SOURCE AND COMMERCIALLY LICENSED SOFTWARE

Many organizations deploy a mix of open and commercially licensed

software either because they have legacy systems previously

installed or because a commercial package was the right tool for a

specific task.

Open source software can be deployed along side commercially

licensed software and often is. In particular, FuseSource products

work particularly well with legacy systems, proprietary modules and

commercially licensed software due to FuseSource’s strict adherence

to leading industry standards.

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CONCLUSION

Apache Servicemix, ActiveMQ, CXF and Camel are components in

the first family of open source integration tools, and the FuseSource

distributions of these projects are the products to use for mission-

critical, enterprise deployments. The binaries, the source code,

a wide range of resources, and access to the community are

available at the FuseSource community site, fusesource.com. Visit

the site and:

Download FuseSource products—It is free and open source.

Install it, run a demo. develop a proof-of-concept project,

even deploy a complete application without paying anything

in license fees.

fusesource.com/downloads

Learn how to make the most of FuseSource—Peruse the

varied resources and get up to speed fast. View a webinar,

tune in for a Getting Started tutorial, watch a demo and

more.

fusesource.com/enterprise-support/getting-started/

Join the community—Take advantage of the collected

experiences of many. Register and participate in the forums,

contribute to the wiki, access premium content and stay

informed.

fusesource.com/register

Contact FuseSource

FuseSource, 14 Oak Park, Bedford, MA 01730 USA On the Web: fusesource.com Email: info@fusesource.com Toll Free: 888.280.5380 Tel: 781.382.4002 Outside US: +31 10 235 11 22

FuseSource

FuseSource, a wholly owned subsidiary of Progress Software, is a community of open source experts that provide software, support, training, and consulting for the most popular Apache-licensed open source integration projects including Apache ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, Camel and CXF. The FuseSource team includes key committers and the leaders at Apache who know the code the best to help FuseSource customers build reliable and scalable software integration infrastructure. © 2010 FuseSource Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All rights reserved. Rev. 10/10

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