It is a redesign and re-write of the widely used Apache Axis SOAP stack.

A new architecture for Axis2 was introduced during the August 2004 Axis2 Summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

[2]: §14-9, [638] Axis2/C is a high-performance Web services implementation that has been implemented with portability and ability to be embedded or hosted in Apache Httpd, Microsoft IIS or Axis Http Server.

See article about Apache Axis2/C Performance (2008) (latest release occurred in 2009).

Key features include: Apache Axis2 includes support for following standards: Below a list of features and selling points cited from the Apache axis site: Axis2 modules provide QoS features like security, reliable messaging, etc.