Service oriented architecture (SOA) software specialist Iona Technologies has today unveiled an upgrade to its Artix Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) featuring enhanced support for a range of new SOA and middleware standards and an improved SOA management dashboard.

Artix ESB 4.1 features a new management console designed to give improved visibility over the suite's activities, but also includes out-of-the-box interoperability with SOA management dashboard specialist AmberPoint.

Sean Baker CTO at Iona said the partnership meant customers deploying complex SOA environments that require close monitoring have access to a more comprehensive governance dashboard. "Our native dashboard is pretty effective, but if you want a Rolls Royce dashboard you can get that with AmberPoint," he added.

The new ESB also features enhanced service orchestration functionality and support for a wider range of SOA standards, including SOAP 1.2, Web Services Reliable Messaging and BPEL.

New content-based routing functionality will also better automate service and data integration, Baker said, ensuring that services within an SOA are automatically routed to certain servers based on pre-set rules.