Keel is ready made server side infrastructure. Keel incorporates multiple open source projects to provide you with a best of breed framework that works right out of the box.

* Security layer
* Database abstraction layer
* Messaging layer
* Business logic layer
* User Interface layer 
* Struts
* Cocoon
* Velocity
* Others in the works.

By integrating the basic components every server may need, Keel is much like many other application development frameworks.

What differentiates Keel is its component design, allowing new implementations to be added and old implementations replaced - without requiring extensive rewrites of your application code.

Within the Keel Framework, your services see each other as "black boxes". These very clear boundaries are what protect you from being locked into any implementation, be it open source, commercial, or even your own.

For a more academic view, download Michael Nash's whitepaper on open source frameworks. Mike is our lead developer.