Iona Technologies has begun offering Celtix Enterprise, a fully supported, open-source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). The product, which can be downloaded for a free 30-day evaluation, is based on various open-source technologies, including Eclipse tools and Apache for message queuing and services framework.

ESBs are seen as critical to service-oriented architectures (SOAs) because they provide a way to integrate and reuse components. Although there are various other open-source ESB approaches, Iona hopes the support of a well-known enterprise software provider will differentiate its offering.

The firm, which made its name with integration software based on the Corba standard, will continue to offer its own Artix ESB but sees Celtix as a way to offer basic services with the buffer of enterprise-level support.

“Celtix is designed for a broad market that doesn’t have a requirement for a wide range of transports,” said Debbie Moynihan, Iona director of open-source programs. “Artix is for companies with 10 of everything but with Celtix we will offer the same level of enterprise support.”

Some watchers said the critical question would be whether Iona could handle potential broad acceptance of the product.

“This is clearly an important point in Iona’s transformation from its heritage in Corba to SOA,” said Ovum senior analyst Ian Charlesworth. “You don’t get anything like this level of support with open-source outside of the community. It’s a huge offering.”

Celtix Enterprise is available for free download.