IDG’s InfoWorld names Paul Fremantle of WSO2 one of InfoWorld’s Top 25 CTOs for 2008

Colombo, Sri Lanka and Mountain View, CA – June 5, 2008 – WSO2, the open source SOA company, announced today that IDG's InfoWorld, the leading integrated media brand for IT decision makers, has named WSO2 CTO Paul Fremantle one of InfoWorld’s Top 25 Chief Technology Officers for 2008. Every year since 2001, InfoWorld has honored senior IT executives who have demonstrated leadership within their companies and in the IT community. The InfoWorld CTO 25 feature, including InfoWorld’s expert reporting and analysis.

“We were struck by how the best CTOs combined solid, strategic technology thinking with management prowess to make their successes happen,” said Galen Gruman, executive editor of InfoWorld. “As one of this year's honorees, Paul Fremantle showed how a savvy CTO can make a huge difference in leading a business to success by creating world-class products and mobilizing a team to deliver on a critical business priority.”

Paul Fremantle has led a revolution in the design of the enterprise service bus (ESB). He concurrently spearheaded the development of the WSO2 ESB while playing a central role in the development of Apache Synapse v.1.0 as an Apache Web services PMC member. Apache Synapse, on which the WSO2 ESB is built, is the first full version of Apache’s service-oriented architecture (SOA) framework. The WSO2 ESB extends the flexibility and performance of Synapse by including WSO2’s intuitive GUI and built-in registry. The ultra lightweight WSO2 ESB can route messages with sub-millisecond overhead and scale to manage thousands of simultaneous connections—without changing users’ application code.

“It’s a great honor to be included with the highly innovative individuals being recognized as InfoWorld’s Top 25 CTOs for 2008,” said Paul Fremantle, co-founder and CTO of WSO2. “This prestigious award also highlights the increasingly strategic role of open source Web services software in turning the SOA promise into reality.”

In addition to his role as WSO2 co-founder and CTO, Paul is currently co-chair of the OASIS Web Services Reliable eXchange Technical Committee, which is charged with creating the industry standard for reliable message exchange over SOAP. Paul's involvement in Web services and open source goes back to his previous role as a technical staff member at IBM. There, he created the Web Services Gateway, donated code to the original Apache SOAP project to enable access to Enterprise JavaBeans, and led IBM's involvement in the Apache Axis C/C++ project. Paul also has published two books: “Building Web Services in Java, 2nd Edition,” and “The XML Files.” Paul lives in Emsworth, England with his wife and two children.

WSO2 is the open source SOA company founded by pioneers in Web services and of members of the Apache Software Foundation Web services community. The company is delivering a new, entirely open source middleware stack that is optimized for Web services and SOA. The company’s cornerstone products are the WSO2 Web services Application Server (based on Apache Axis2) and WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (based on Apache Synapse), which are built on the WSO2 Web services Framework. The company is backed by Intel Capital and maintains operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.

InfoWorld Media Group helps IT Decision Makers choose the right technology, within the context of a cohesive strategy for business impact at their organizations. InfoWorld identifies and promotes emerging technology segments that add unique value for the organizations that implement them, as well as the vendors that provide those solutions. Using an integrated communications approach including online, events, research, and a continued investment in an independent Test Center, InfoWorld analysts and editors provide hands-on analysis and evaluation, as well as expert commentary on issues surrounding emerging technologies and products. Visit InfoWorld at https://www.infoworld.com.

International Data Group (IDG) is the world's leading technology media, events, and research company. IDG’s online network includes more than 450 web sites spanning business technology, consumer technology, digital entertainment and video games worldwide. IDG also publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers in 85 countries. IDG's media brands include CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, and PC World. IDG’s lead-generation service, IDG Connect, matches technology companies with an audience of engaged, high-quality IT professionals, influencers, and decision makers.

IDG is a leading producer of more than 750 technology-related events including Macworld Conference & Expo, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Entertainment for All Expo (E for All), DEMO, Storage Networking World, and IDC Directions. IDC, a subsidiary of IDG, is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Over 900 IDC analysts in more than 90 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends. Additional information about IDG, a privately held company, is available at https://www.idg.com .