OASIS Member News: Reactivity and Grand Central Partner to Simplify Privacy-Enhanced Enterprise Integration

[Markus Hoevener <reactivity@bloofusion.com>]

Reactivity and Grand Central Partner to Simplify Privacy-Enhanced 
Enterprise Integration

Joint Solution Ensures End-to-End Compliance with Government Privacy and 
Security Mandates
http://www.reactivity.com/news_and_events/pr_040604_grandcentral.html

BELMONT, CA, and SAN FRANCISCO,  CA April 19, 2004 – Reactivity, a leader 
in instantly and sustainably securing XML Web services, and Grand Central 
Communications, provider of award-winning Integration On Demand™ solutions 
that lower the cost, time-to-value, and complexity of integration, today 
announced a technology and joint marketing partnership to simplify the 
deployment of privacy-enhanced enterprise integration. Combining the 
strengths of Reactivity’s XML Firewall™ and Grand Central’s Business 
Services Network, the two companies will offer a rapid and scalable 
integration solution with the security enterprises need to ensure they are 
in compliance with government-regulated privacy and security regulations 
and their own privacy policies.

Through the partnership, Reactivity and Grand Central make possible the 
rapid and scalable implementation of integration and security that makes 
the complex simple. Grand Central's Integration On Demand service enables 
enterprises to interoperate with their diverse business units, partners, 
vendors and customers outside the enterprise within days instead of months, 
and its Business Services Network is accessible via an easy-to-use, 
self-service, Web-based interface. Reactivity's XML Firewall enables 
enterprises to rapidly deploy and provision Web services with end-to-end 
message-level privacy and security. Its Web-based, easy-to-use 
administrative Management Console makes complex security policies simple, 
rapidly provisions and maintains connections and provides at-a-glance 
access to information about Web services activity and security.

“Grand Central and Reactivity share a commitment to simplifying the 
complex, and we have embodied this in our joint solution to help 
enterprises and government agencies achieve regulatory compliance for 
privacy and security,” said Ron Palmeri, Executive Vice President of 
Corporate and Product Development for Grand Central Communications. “We 
look forward to working with Reactivity to deliver the highest levels of 
privacy and security for integrated business processes that span across our 
customers’ applications, business units, and trading partners that are 
delivered through our Integration On Demand offering.”

As financial services and healthcare organizations, as well as government 
agencies and others make greater use of XML Web services, they must also 
ensure their software, systems and networks are in compliance with the 
security and privacy requirements set out by the Health Insurance 
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and Gramm-Leach- Bliley 
Act in the United States and comparable privacy legislation in the European 
Union. The partnership between Grand Central and Reactivity will ensure 
that business transactions by enterprises using Grand Central’s Business 
Services Network and Reactivity's XML Firewall will deploy seamlessly and 
be in compliance with these government privacy and security mandates.

“Many enterprises need an on demand integration solution, but to be in 
compliance with these government privacy and security regulations, they 
need one that secures transactions as they reach and leave their corporate 
systems,” said Glenn Osaka, CEO and president of Reactivity. “Our 
partnership with Grand Central offers these enterprises the best path for 
achieving rapid and scalable integration with industry-leading XML Web 
services security that’s easy to deploy.”

The Reactivity XML Firewall integrates with Grand Central’s Business 
Services Directory, enabling WSDL files generated by Grand Central to be 
pulled into the firewall asynchronously or synchronously for easy 
provisioning. Together, Reactivity and Grand Central can support 
translation between internal message protocols like JMS, MQ, and Tibco, 
Internet protocols like SOAP and HTTP, and legacy data protocols like FTP, 
SecureFTP, NTFPS, and AS/2, as well as translation between xml, binary, 
text, and other data formats.

Reactivity and Grand Central assure enforced authentication and flexible 
security policies. Transactions are correctly authenticated on both sides 
of the connection through traditional HTTP authentication or WS-Security. 
Reactivity’s detailed flexibility at a granular level for SAML, X.509 and 
username/password authentication compliments Grand Central's ability to 
mediate between VPN, X.509 and SSL-protected connections, as well as other 
security approaches.

Information on the combined Reactivity/Grand Central solution, available 
immediately, can be obtained by calling Reactivity at 650-551-7800; Grand 
Central at 415-344-3226; or by visiting www.reactivity.com or 
www.grandcentral.com.


About Grand Central Communications
Grand Central provides Integration On Demand™ through its award-winning 
Business Services Network, built on the Internet. By offering integration 
as a service, Grand Central dramatically lowers the cost, time, and risk of 
application integration, providing a true alternative to complicated, 
lengthy, and expensive software deployments. As a neutral, trusted third 
party, Grand Central mediates the complex technical and business 
differences associated with integration, enabling enterprises to rapidly 
access and share information, services and business processes with 
partners, customers and internal business units, without adding infrastructure.

Grand Central’s market-changing approach has received significant 
recognition in the industry, including InfoWorld’s 2003 Award for “Best Web 
Services Integration Solution”, Readers Choice Award from .NET Magazine, 
Two Thumbs Up from Web Services Journal Product Review, and the winner of 
the 2003 Comdex “Iron Chef” Web Services Competition. The company is 
headquartered in San Francisco, California. Call 1-800 845-4313 or visit 
www.grandcentral.com for more information.


About Reactivity
Reactivity provides the only proven, high-performance, manageable security 
solution for XML- based Web services. Reactivity's XML Firewall™ expedites 
the development and deployment of secure enterprise-class Web services for 
internal and external customers. The Reactivity XML Firewall protects 
organizations against new application-level threats, supports evolving 
standards and manages Web services security policy for the enterprise. It 
scales to meet the needs of the large enterprise systems, integrates with 
existing infrastructure and provides high-availability security and 
operational functionality. Reactivity serves Global 2000 enterprises 
leveraging Web services to interact with customers and partners, increase 
revenues, and lower critical integration effort costs.

Reactivity’s innovative security and connectivity appliance has received 
significant recognition in the industry, including Software Development 
Magazine’s 2004 JOLT Productivity Award for “Security Tools” and as Network 
Computing magazine 2004 Well Connected award finalist.  Reactivity is 
located in Belmont, California, and can be reached at www.reactivity.com, 
+1- 650-551-7800 or info@reactivity.com.