Press Releases
CONTACT: XYZ BizTalk Adapter for OSB Governmental Service Bus Tested Successfully by Covast and ICTU
Capelle aan den IJssel, the Netherlands, January 13, 2009 - At the request
of Microsoft, Covast, the Microsoft BizTalk Server expert center in the Netherlands,
has developed an adapter for the "Overheidsservicebus" (OSB; service
bus of the Dutch government), which after installation is fully integrated with
the BizTalk platform. The adapter uses the reliable transaction-processing ebMS
(ebXML Message Service) protocol to link BizTalk to the OSB's communication protocol.
The OSB Adapter has now been tested successfully at the OSB Compliance Facility
of ICTU, the organization which standardizes the exchange of messages between
government organizations in the Netherlands and determines whether applications
comply with the standards. Covast is the first software supplier who has accomplished
this.
Until now many government organizations made their own logistical choices, complicating
the exchange of messages and necessitating the implementation of new protocols
time and again. The introduction of the OSB will change all of this. Covast is
currently carrying out proof-of-concept projects at various ministries and other
government organizations.
Government organizations who have based their SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)
infrastructure on Microsoft BizTalk Server, can use the OSB Adapter to connect
to the OSB. This facilitates keeping up with innovations in government communication
and integration. The adapter enables standardized data access and modification.
"As we are strongly engaged in government initiatives, Microsoft Netherlands
brought together ICTU, Covast and various government organizations in September
2008 to exchange ideas about the OSB, underlining the importance we attach to
this initiative," said Michiel Rozema, Product Solution Manager BizTalk,
Microsoft.
Rather than being a stand-alone server, Covast's OSB Adapter is fully integrated
into the SOA architecture. The messages are managed and monitored on the BizTalk
platform.
The OSB takes care, in a standardized way, of the logistical aspects of messaging
between government organizations. It offers a single standard with a limited number
of variations to support messaging types with different characteristics. Municipalities,
provinces, national ministries and other government organizations are connecting
to the OSB to exchange data. Web services are used to access data, and ebMS, a
secure and highly reliable transaction-processing protocol, is used to modify
data.
About Covast
Covast is a leading provider of business-to-business integration solutions and
is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Covast focuses exclusively on the Microsoft
Application Platform which supports products such as BizTalk Server, SharePoint
Server and SQL Server. The company has its own experts who also advise Microsoft
in the further development of these products. Covast maintains its European
headquarters in the Netherlands and its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta. For more
information, visit http://www.covast.com.
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