In Version 4.0 of Artix, services invocation can be graphically mapped out via BPEL, said Steph Bacon, Iona vice president of product development. An analyst, meanwhile, cited the importance of BPEL.

"The addition of a BPEL orchestrator is pretty important," said Shawn Willett, principal analyst at Current Analysis, in an e-mail. "Iona is selling this as an ESB, and BPEL will allow multistep integrations, which is a pretty basic part of most integration projects."

"Iona has a pretty unique ESB product in that it is geared toward high-end organizations that want to service-enable their networks and perform integrations based on services, but don't want to put in a new EAI-type layer. It's an approach that requires more IT staff and expertise than lower-end ESB-type of products, but appeals to organizations who want to build an SOA their way,'" Willett said.

Shipping as of today, Artix 4.0 features its own Java Message Service implementation. Iona also is highlighting its support of the WS-ReliableMessaging specification to enhance messaging.

"The deal with WS-RM is you can use any standards-based client," such as a .Net client, and bridge to messaging systems such as Tibco, Bacon said.