(San Jose, CA) -- Halcyon Software, Inc. recently announced the beta release of iHUB, an innovative high-performance middleware solution that enables cross-integration and cross-development between Microsoft .NET, Windows, J2EE, and XML-based applications.

In a world where 90% of the medium to large organizations use a mixture of Microsoft and Java in their development and deployment environment, building a true enterprise system means integrating multiple operational departments and heterogeneous computing environments. J2EE and .NET are the two major contenders in the enterprise application framework arena. iHUB offers seamless integration between the two platforms, as well as Windows legacy applications, providing developers the best of both the worlds.

Using iHUB, a Web Form (.NET) can access an EJB (J2EE) that may be hosted under any application server on a non-Windows machine halfway across the world. Similarly a JSP application on a S/390 mainframe can embed and utilize a .NET CLR object as if it were a local JavaBean component. "It's all about giving control back to the developers," said Naufal Khan, Halcyon's vice president of Engineering. "iHUB removes the framework barriers and functional limitations that discourage developers from building cross-platform and truly distributed applications."

The initial framework integration support includes J2EE, .NET, and legacy Windows technologies such as COM/DCOM, MTS, ActiveX, and DLLs. iHUB comes with a full service XML bridge that provides simplified XML parsing with a high-speed network layer. iHUB provides framework integration by taking the .NET Remoting concept and making it cross-platform. It includes a Java implementation of the Remoting infrastructure, allowing J2EE and .NET to come together without burdening the developer with packet formats, complicated protocols, or new interfaces.

iHUB can be used for complete end-to-end integration between Web services, COM/ActiveX, EJBs, .NET CLR objects, and more on disparate frameworks and application servers including Microsoft .NET, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, Sun iPlanet, and Oracle9i Application Server. A free evaluation download of the iHUB beta release is available at www.halcyonsoft.com. "Early Adopter" pricing is set at $50.00 per client. The server is offered for free.