BlueSpace

The record messaging and AMHS arena is a mix of in-house custom solutions, integrator created point solutions and legacy applications from older software companies. In an age of tightening fiscal budgets, BlueSpace offers TransMail as a controlled messaging product that can be leveraged across the community, providing new capabilities and a modern architecture at a lower price point than existing systems.

The Challenge

Most of the currently deployed record messaging and AMHS systems have not changed much over the past decade or more. They are typically black box solutions with access rules and workflow hard-coded into their application logic, and are not suited to the SOA environments being implemented in the defense and intelligence communities. The message protocols for backbone message transfer have also been legacy, built on file transfer or X.400 standards.

The backbone piece is now changing. In the US, NSA and CIA have led the way on a DNI sponsored initiative to replace the various custom messaging protocols with the Information Transport Service (ITS). ITS is based on the Java Message Service and XML documents, with TIBCO as the primary selected vendor for the JMS fabric. This is a very sensible choice – JMS has been the backbone of other transactional systems such as Nasdaq for many years.

The client applications, however, are still currently diverse and disparate. Users cannot use simple email, as there are delivery guarantee requirements, keyword-based message routing requirements, release processes and role-based directory requirements. These formal messaging requirements are unique to the defense and intelligence communities, and are not met by the market leading email servers such as Microsoft Exchange.

As several organizations are currently re-evaluating their record messaging and AMHS servers and clients, it seems likely that the next few years will see a generation change of these technologies to more modern platforms. These modern platforms should be able to provide native support for JMS and XML, as well as more flexible and extensible workflow and access rules systems that are capable of capturing complex policies.

Rather than ‘black box’ standalone systems, these new record messaging and AMHS systems should be able to integrate into the rest of the defense and intelligence enterprise – synchronizing to external systems, and using best of breed components rather than hard-coded internal behaviors. As a former European VP of Marketing at Remedy once commented, "the last thing the world needs is another custom-built workflow engine".

The Solution

BlueSpace TransMail is a Java Enterprise application with a modern software architecture that provides a ‘next generation’ choice for record messaging and AMHS systems. It uses JMS and XML internally, and stores content in an Oracle database.

TransMail supports custom data and forms based on an XForms derived schema, as well as flexible access controls and rigorous auditing. It can be connected to external workflow and RETE rules engine systems, allowing far greater flexibility and extensibility than ‘black box’ solutions.

TransMail can be accessed via a web 2.0 client in the browser, which supports right click menus, drag and drop, and other features that users have become accustomed to in web email clients. In addition, TransMail can be accessed via Unity, the MLS email client, providing a single inbox spanning both record messages and regular email from Microsoft Exchange.

TransMail is the only COTS record messaging and AMHS server platform that has been developed in accordance with current software best practice, leveraging a modern software architecture.