The user group has selected New York-based banking technology vendor Random Walk Computing as a vendor-neutral firm for the project.

The JMS Challenge is the result of the common desire of user group members to independently validate the claims of a growing roster of JMS middleware vendors, says the group. Members expressed the wish to work collectively in this infrastructure area to pool experiences and expertise, and to avoid duplication of effort.

The benchmarking initiative will focus on the features and API points of JMS that are germane to particular financial services applications. For all features, the performance, robustness and security of JMS offerings will be evaluated.

Dialogue is underway with leading financial services organisations to ensure that the benchmarking will focus on real-life application scenarios, which are likely to include market/reference data delivery, trading transactions, indications of interest and order book/ECN data delivery.

"Given the importance of Java technologies to Wall Street, these financial players are now keen to leverage the cross-platform JMS API, and the JMS Challenge will play an important role in terms of providing the technical groundwork to speed its widespread adoption," says Java on Wall Street User Group chairman Duncan Johnston-Watt.

The next steps for the JMS Challenge will involve the formation of a Technology Advisory Group (TAG) to oversee the entire benchmarking process. The TAG will include representatives from financial markets participants and JMS vendors as well as recognized technical experts. Sponsorship will be sought from the industry and from vendors to support the initiative.

Subject to various intermediate steps being completed to schedule, the first results of the JMS Challenge will be published in November 2001.