[jdev] [ANN] Wildfire 3.0 Beta and Wildfire Enterprise

[Matt Tucker]

Hey all,

A few announcements today. First, Wildfire 3.0 beta is now available. It
includes two major new features:

* Connection manager architecture. Connection managers are light-weight
processes that handle load by aggregating client connections to a core
Wildfire server. Multiple connection managers can be deployed to handle
very large numbers of users. We're developing the connection manager
protocol as a JEP, which we hope to make available soon. Our Open Source
implementation of the protocol is available at:

http://www.jivesoftware.org/wildfire/connection_manager.jsp

* Greatly improved plugins. Plugins in Wildfire now support
internationalization, automatic database upgrades, and a richer API.
We've also added the ability to download and deploy plugins from inside
the Wildfire admin console (UI still under development for the beta). :)

3.0 also includes a long list of other improvements and bug fixes:

http://www.jivesoftware.org/builds/wildfire/docs/3.0.0_beta/changelog.ht
ml


Second (and the big news from our perspective!) -- I'm pleased to
announce Wildfire Enterprise. Enterprise is a commercial extension that
builds on the Open Source Wildfire base. It includes deep functionality
around reporting, archiving, and client management. It also includes
Spark Fastpath (for customer chat) and the Spark Skinning service to
build custom-branded versions of Spark for your organization. Wildfire
Enterprise is deployed as a plugin, so is a simple upgrade from the Open
Source version of Wildfire. Details on all the features in Enterprise
can be found at:

http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/wildfire/features/enterprise.jsp

We also put up a tour of all the IM features (both Open Source and
Enterprise):

http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/wildfire/features.jsp


So, what does this all mean for the Wildfire Open Source project? Jive
Software is committed to building a strong Open Source business. The
commercial extensions to Wildfire let us invest in the Open Source
project and drive it as a leading open alternative to proprietary
instant messaging. You can read more about our Open Source philosophy
at:

http://www.jivesoftware.org/about.jsp

Regards,
Matt