Today saw the much anticipated release of JBoss Transactions. When JBoss acquired the technology from Arjuna last year, it was an important point in the evolution of JBoss specifically and OSS in general. Now there's a readily available enterprise ready transaction service implementation that has been developed and used over the years by the likes of Hewlett-Packard, webMethods, TIBCO, Applied Biosystems, S2 Systems, Bluestone and many others. I'll blog on the features of JBoss Transactions 4.2 separately later, but for now it's worth pointing out that it is a stand-alone transaction service, which means that it has no dependency on any specific application server and can run totally independently. In fact, it has run successfully in at least 6 different application servers. So if you have a need for a reliable transaction service implementation and the licence terms are suitable, take a look at JBoss Transactions. So although we'd obviously recommend you use JBossAS if you need an application server, don't think you need to use that in order to use JBossTS.

Enterprise business processes need reliable coordination and management that has a tried-and-tested pedigree. JBoss Transactions fits these requirements, helping to guarantee the fast and accurate execution of business operations. Whilst hardware redundancy can minimise the chance of system failures, it can neither eliminate them entirely nor prevent the knock-on effect of possible data corruption and inconsistencies of business transactions. JBossTS, with its automated failure recovery, provides business transactions with industry proven techniques for ensuring consistency and integrity of your information even in the event of failures.

Here are other reasons to choose JBossTS:

• JBossTS guarantees the fast and accurate execution of business processes, preserving the accuracy of business information even in the presence of system failures. Automated crash recovery minimises the cost and duration of unscheduled downtime, allowing you to provide a better service to your customers.
• JBossTS integrates easily with the JBoss application server, or directly with standalone Java programs. JBossTS provides fast, flexible, standards-based transaction support to J2EE and CORBA applications, working with enterprise databases such as Oracle and MS SqlServer, and JMS compliant messaging servers.
• JBossTS provides comprehensive documentation and code samples to get you up and running quickly. From basic concepts to complex crash recovery scenarios, our step by step trailmap allows users to rapidly master the art of building or managing robust, reliable software.
• JBossTS supports Web Services transactions, including extended transaction models designed specifically for loosely-coupled, long running business processes. J2EE transactions can integrate seamlessly with Web Services transactions using our integrated, bi-directional transaction bridge. Interoperability with many other vendors is provided out-of-the-box and JBoss is an active participant in these standards.

This is yet another nail in the coffin of those who say JBoss isn't enterprise ready! And for a fraction of the cost of other commercial application servers. Plus it has an advanced architecture that others are only just getting to. Go on: take a look!