Hermes Messaging Gateway v2.0 Supporting AS2 Released

[Dorris Tai <cwtai@cecid.hku.hk>]

Hermes Messaging Gateway v2.0 Supporting AS2 Released

Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China - December 16, 2005 - Center 
for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID), The University of 
Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to announce Hermes Messaging Gateway v2.0 
(Hermes 2) supporting ebMS and Applicability Specification (AS2) is 
available for download. Thanks to project funding from the HKSAR 
Government's Innovation & Technology Commission, the new version of the 
messaging gateway has extended secure and reliable data transmission to 
users of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and other 
business-to-business data.

Released under GNU General Public License 
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html), Hermes 2 and its source code can 
be downloaded for free from Freebxml (http://www.freebxml.org) and CECID 
(http://www.cecid.hku.hk). Community support is provided through the 
mailing list cecid-hermes2@googlegroups.com.

Users and OEMs can also obtain professional support from Hermes' first 
value-added partner, iASPEC Technologies 
(http://www.iaspec.com/supportservicesforHermes2.htm). A non-GPL 
enterprise edition, with extra features like message status query 
capabilities and a Web-based GUI administrative tool for easy 
configuration and management of the messaging gateway, is expected to be 
made available by iASPEC in 1Q2006. This enterprise edition will free 
commercial license customers from GPL's requirement of distributing 
their proprietary source code.

For users requiring only ebMS messaging capabilities, Hermes 1 is still 
available at Freebxml under Academic Free License 
(http://www.opensource.org/licenses/afl-2.1.php) with community support 
provided through ebxmlms-develop@lists.sourceforge.net.

Completed the AS2 Interoperability Testing AS-1Q05 with 29 other 
participants (http://ebusinessready.org/as2.html) organized by U.S. 
leading testing company, Drummond Group Inc., Hermes 2 enables real-time 
communication through HTTP or HTTPS to transmit data over the Internet. 
Besides, it provides security for the transport payload through Secure 
Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), digital signatures and 
encryption, while reliability and non-repudiation are achieved through 
the use of receipts.

The AS2 standard, commonly used in supply chains by large retailers, 
manufacturers and suppliers, is often regarded as the “EDI over 
Internet” standard. This latest version of Hermes facilitates large as 
well as small enterprises to exchange EDI or other business-to-business 
data with their partners and customers. It operates as a Java web 
application. The ebXML Messaging Service (ebMS) and AS2 messaging 
capabilities are facilitated by the corresponding plugins, which can be 
easily developed by users through Hermes’ Simple Plugin Architecture 
specification. The messaging operation requires a database with JDBC 
connectivity to keep track of the messaging status.

About iASPEC (http://www.iaspec.com)
iASPEC is an IT consulting and software services firm headquartered in 
Hong Kong. Since its founding in 1988, the Company has built a solid 
reputation with proven track records in serving its local and 
international customers. The Company has subsidiaries and associated 
firms in Mainland China and the United States of America. Leveraging on 
the combined strength of its multi-location operations, iASPEC provides 
innovative software products, high-quality IT consulting and 
professional services to its clients in these expanded regions.

About CECID (http://www.cecid.hku.hk)
Established in January 2002, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure 
Development (CECID) at the University of Hong Kong conducts e-commerce 
research and development with the vision of helping organizations 
increase their competitiveness in the global economy. CECID develops 
e-commerce enabling technologies, participates in important 
international e-commerce initiatives, supports e-commerce 
standardization for Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific Region, and transfers 
e-commerce technology and skills to the community. With projects 
primarily funded by the Hong Kong Government's Innovation and Technology 
Commission, CECID is an active member of OASIS and the ebXML Asia 
Committee. The Center also collaborates with a number of lead technology 
users in the Asia-Pacific.

About Hermes 1 (http://www.cecid.hku.hk/hermes1.php)
In compliance with OASIS ebXML Message Service (ebMS*) standard, Hermes 
1 is a Business-to-Business (B2B) Messaging Server which provides a 
standardized, reliable and secure infrastructure for enterprises to 
exchange business data on the Internet. Available under Academic Free 
License, developers from 80+ economies have downloaded Hermes’ source 
code. Hermes 1 has many successful use cases, most of which are 
innovative, cost-effective applications used by enterprises for exchange 
of business documents such as POs and invoices. Besides ebXML Asia 
Interoperability Certificates, Hermes has won Certificates of Merit 
(Product Category) at the 6th HK Computer Society IT Excellence Awards 
and the Asia-Pacific ICT Awards 2004 (R&D Category). Recently, Hermes 
has won the Grand Award in Infrastructure Building and Communication 
Application of Hong Kong Linux Business Award 2005.

PR Contacts for Press and Analysts:
Dorris Tai (cwtai@cecid.hku.hk)
Business Manager
Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID)
Dept. of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2859 2818
Fax: +852 2547 4611
URL: http://www.cecid.hku.hk