Kenamea targets Web-based messaging
- By Brian Robinson
- Dec 09, 2001
When it was first emerging, the World Wide Web provided users with a much-needed
ability to portray a wide range of content on the computer screen. It was
a groundbreaking concept, but if the Internet is to evolve, so too must
the Web.
Although the Web is still great for delivering content, it is lousy
for handling applications. If it is to be the platform for deploying e-business,
the NGI needs reliable, secure and event-driven communications, not the
best-effort system that rules today.
That's the basis for the solution that San Francisco-based Kenamea Inc.
(www.kenamea.com) offers.
"The NGI is all about access to function, rather than information,"
said John Blair, president, chief executive officer and co-founder of Kenamea.
"For the government, for example, that means giving their suppliers and
the general populace access to government functions, and that's a major
difference in kind. Anyone who has tried to build a Web application around
today's technology has found it painful to use and very expensive to develop
and deploy."
Kenamea's Application Network is a software application layer that hooks
into any network protocol, using store-and-forward messaging — a system
that has been in use for some time on intranets — as the basis for communi.cations
via the Internet.
In store-and-forward messaging, a message broker receives messages from
senders and delivers them to recipients if and when possible. This scheme
is more reliable than user-to-user messaging, because if delivery fails
the first time, the message can be resent. Providing comparable reliability
in standard networks is much harder.
"As mobile technology and other elements of the NGI evolve, that becomes
even more important, because wireless is much less reliable and secure than
other media," Blair said.
After two years in development, Kenamea's Application Network has been
commercially available for three months. The company will use the CommerceNet
grant to demonstrate to industry how its solution will help deliver distributed
applications to users via the NGI.
About the Author
Brian Robinson is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore.