Passenger’s customer collaboration platform is a Web-based platform that offers clients private community forums based on the concepts of social networking. Clients can easily establish online private brand communities to facilitate seamless communications between the company and their customers. The platform is delivered in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, enabling easier feature enhancements and customization. Due to the high degree of customization that Passenger offers its customers, the company required the efficiency and flexibility offered by an SOA integration infrastructure. Passenger evaluated both commercially licensed and Open Source options and selected ActiveMQ as the preferred solution.

“We take a best of breed approach to technology,” said Bill Parducci, CTO, Passenger. “We quickly established that ActiveMQ was the best technology on the market for SOA enablement based on a messaging infrastructure, particularly as our solution is offered over the Web using the SaaS delivery model. However, because it was critically important for us to have enterprise-level service and support for a successful roll-out, we required a solution with a first class support structure. IONA provided us with the ability to take the best technology on the market in the form of ActiveMQ and confidently deploy a tested and certified version of that technology together with the required level of enterprise consultancy and support with FUSE Message Broker.”

FUSE is IONA’s tested and certified Open Source product family based on popular projects hosted by the Apache Software Foundation. IONA provides professional support, consulting and training for enterprise customers looking to deploy Open Source SOA technology in mission-critical business applications. While the FUSE Message Broker provides the fundamental infrastructure for Passenger’s SOA infrastructure, the company has adopted additional Open Source products from IONA’s FUSE product family to extend and enhance its SOA capabilities. As with FUSE Message Broker, each of these products is a certified, tested and fully supported release of a technology developed at the Apache Software Foundation. Passenger uses the FUSE Services Framework, based on Apache CXF, to enable web services and FUSE Mediation Router, based on Apache Camel, to easily implement messaging patterns.

“A robust, enterprise-scale production and support infrastructure was key to our decision to adopt Open Source technology,” explained Bill Parducci. “IONA’s professional services team is truly first class and from our first engagement we knew the team had the experience with the technology and were highly skilled in the delivery of mission-critical consultancy and support to Global 2000 customers. The IONA team did more than address basic configuration questions for ActiveMQ. They understood our requirements and helped to set the direction for our architecture. They introduced us to valuable features and capabilities of the technology that we would not have been aware of, had we decided to deploy ActiveMQ without their assistance. Yes, they provide 24x7 production support, and we do require that, but there is also great value in IONA’s ability to apply its breadth of experience in integration architecture and depth of technical product knowledge to our specific requirements.”

“We’re delighted to be selected by Passenger in the roll-out of their Open Source based SOA infrastructure,” said Larry Alston, Vice President and General Manager Open Source, IONA Technologies. “Robust technology alone is not enough, enterprise customers require a complete solution, and that means it must be backed-up by the right level of enterprise service and support, technical expertise and deep industry experience. Passenger is a clear example of the kind of support companies are looking for in their evaluation and adoption of Open Source technology.”

Further information on IONA FUSE is available at the FUSE community Web site at http://open.iona.com. The site also offers discussion forums, wikis, tutorials, sample applications and documentation designed to help users at all stages of their FUSE adoption.

About IONA

For more than a decade, IONA® Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA) has been a world leader in delivering high-performance integration solutions for Global 2000 IT environments. IONA pioneered standards-based integration with its CORBA-based Orbix® products. IONA’s Artix™, an advanced SOA infrastructure suite enables customers to leverage service-oriented architecture to streamline and modernize IT environments. The FUSE™ family of open source distributed SOA infrastructure technology allows customers to take advantage of the innovation and cost-effectiveness of open source software with complete enterprise support and technical services.

IONA is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices worldwide. For additional information about IONA, visit our Web site at http://www.iona.com.

IONA, IONA Technologies, the IONA logo, Orbix, High Performance Integration, Artix, FUSE and Making Software Work Together are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. CORBA is a trademark or registered trademark of the Object Management Group, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Passenger

Passenger® is the technology leader in on-demand customer collaboration. The company’s on-demand software platform enables brands and customers to collaborate within the social context of a private online community. Passenger combines leading-edge social-networking, community-building and collaboration technologies into an intuitive and scalable platform. Founded in 2005 and based in Los Angeles, the company is privately held and backed by Shelter Capital Partners, StarVest Partners and Steamboat Ventures. For more information, please visit www.thinkpassenger.com