A while back, when I was researching the topic of SOA, several things struck me as odd. First, while everyone talks up web services (SOAP + HTTP), the actual success stories and case studies were all in CORBA or some such. Second, while everyone emphasizes the importance of messaging, the most popular messaging systems mentioned, at least under the ESB umbrella, are all JMS based.

Didn't these people knew, that JMS is only an API specification that does nothing at all to ensure interoperability? Plus it's a Java only solution.

Well, someone did know that this is a problem. And they are working on a new standard messaging protocol. (Via Middleware Matters.)

Who

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. (John O'Hara)
• Cisco Systems (Cliff Meltzer)
• Envoy Technologies, Inc. (Harold Piskiel)
• iMatix Corporation (Pieter Hintjens)
• IONA Technologies (Eric Newcomer)
• Red Hat, Inc. (Brian Stevens)
• TWIST Process Innovations (Tom Buschman)
• 29West

What

Leading Organizations Join Forces To Develop New Messaging Protocol

The development of the AMQP specification is being driven by real-world, end-user demand for messaging infrastructure that is capable of integrating across various platforms, languages and protocols. AMQP is designed to be an effective means to create interoperability and unification of the messaging function because it is not reliant on specific implementations geared to individual platforms. The AMQP specification is also designed to interoperate with many of the current messaging and Web services specifications, including JMS, SOAP, WS Security, WS-Transactions, and many others, making AMQP an ideal messaging layer for use in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Further, AMQP is unique in that it provides an interoperable wire-level protocol, making it complementary to messaging application programming interfaces (APIs) such as JMS and useful in next-generation network infrastructure.

When

The AMQP specification is expected to reach version 1.0 within 18 months, at which time the Working Group will submit it to a standards body.

Why

"AMQP solves the 'missing middleware standard' problem." —John O'Hara, VP and Distinguished Engineer at JPMorgan

It is geared towards the financial services industry and is supposedly based on real-world working products. The down side of the announcement is that the final spec is still 18 months away.

[Update] InfoQ seems to have the most lively discussion about ADMQ right now.