In a move almost certain to prompt a reaction from IBM and Microsoft and open-source web services competitor JBoss, BEA Systems has acquired the object persistence company, SolarMetric.

BEA management says the move gives it an early lead in the race towards Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0 and Java EE 5 compatibility. SolarMetric, a privately-held company based in Austin, Texas, is known for its Kodo persistence engine, and supports both EJB 3.0 and Java Data Objects (JDO) programming models.

"The Kodo best-in-class persistence-engine firmly positions BEA as a market leader," said Wai Wong (pictured), executive vice president, products, BEA Systems, Inc. "Offering JDO within WebLogic via SolarMetric's Kodo will allow us to provide a richer experience and enhanced productivity to our extensive WebLogic customer user-base."

BEA's acquisition is based on the following insight: The draft EJB 3.0 standard focuses on persisting in-memory objects in relational databases. This means transient objects like shopping carts or ticket reservations can be stored over time. The JDO specification allows for persisting the objects in other ways as well -- the Kodo persistence engine has developer bindings for both EJB 3.0 and JDO, which allows developers to blend either standard in the same application. Customers have the choice to either use the JDO standard, get an early start on EJB 3.0 or add in EJB 3 .0 over time, as the specification is being finalized.

The acquisition also BEA's decade-long track record of successful technology acquisition, integration, enhancement and innovation, the company says. SolarMetric, widely respected for its persistence technology around JDO, will help BEA achieve faster time to market with its flagship WebLogic Server product.

BEA Vice President Bill Roth told WLDJ in an exclusive briefing, "Our overall acquisition strategy lately has been to do things that help us leapfrog the competition. By purchasing SolarMetric, we have the ability to deliver rock-solid persistence. This is something that makes developers lives easier when working with databases. It’s ultimately about productivity. This acquisition is a perfect follow-on to the M7 acquisition, which will allow us to take the lead in EJB3 developer as well as blended open source development as well."