Persistence, Cysive Sold on auction applications

Business-to-business e-commerce has motivated Persistence Software Inc. to partner with systems builder Cysive Inc. to develop Web-based auction technology.

Sold is an Enterprise JavaBean application framework that runs on Persistence's PowerTier application server, which provides application processing, load balancing and integration with a company's back end.

I-mind Education Systems Inc., a Mill Valley, Calif., startup, will use PowerTier to run its Web software that enables teachers to post lesson plans and homework assignments and communicate with students. The application, which would be part of a school portal, is scheduled to ship early next year.

Ken Bannister, I-mind's senior developer, said his company would consider adding to its product prebuilt components such as Sold to reduce the time it takes to get to market.

"If the software is already built, and I feel like it's quality stuff, why not?" Bannister said. "The kind of stuff they're talking about here is quite complicated. You need to have something that's pretty darn reliable, and Persistence certainly has the expertise."

Sold uses transaction caching to enable companies to support thousands of concurrent users, said Persistence officials in San Mateo, Calif. Application processes can be replicated on multiple servers to ensure that a transaction is not lost if one server goes down.

The full auction framework includes an Oracle8i database, the Apache Web server and Message Broker from TIBCO Inc. Cysive, formerly known as Alta Software and based in Reston, Va., can deploy Sold, which is available this week, in four to six weeks, officials said. The estimated cost is $275,000.

Persistence can be reached at (650) 372-3600 or www.persistence.com. Cysive is at (800) 996-2582 or www.cysive.com.