The SOA intermediary market is undergoing rapid consolidation as startups seek to expand beyond their niches and larger players offer suites that claim to cover all of an enterprise's service integration needs. In this report, we examine the current state of the four main SOA intermediary product categories, examining how they overlap and how the vendors within each category plan to expand:
ESB (ENTERPRISE SERVICE BUS)
The ESB is rapidly being commoditized, thanks to open-source options and its incorporation within other products. It is already a standard offering from service platform vendors and likely to become one within BPM (business process management) suites. To address this, ESB vendors are moving higher up the stack to BPM, CEP (complex event processing) or RIAs (rich Internet applications, the main technology in Web 2.0).
DESIGN-TIME GOVERNANCE
This is the least mature product category within SOA, mostly because it is needed only in relatively large deployments. It is a likely target for expansion from ESB and Web services management vendors looking to add value, though it may splinter as each targets a different part: ESBs come from the application development world and so are more likely to expand into the repository, while management platforms are more likely to offer the registry.
RUN-TIME MANAGEMENT
Web 2.0 has given this category a new lease on life, as a management platform can take the place of an ESB in Web services installations that are primarily designed for point-to-point connectivity. Many of these may evolve into more complete SOAs that require an ESB, but there will remain a place for standalone management tools.
XML SECURITY GATEWAY
Specialist XML security gateways are disappearing, but XML firewall functionality is more critical than ever. The security vendors themselves are moving into software and Web services management. Hardware XML firewalls will increasingly move inside the network infrastructure, supplied by AFE (application front end) vendors that can also provide hardware acceleration of other SOA functions.
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Report Table of Contents:
Executive Summary
ESB (Enterprise Service Bus)
Design-Time Governance
Run-time Management
XML Security Gateway
SOA Product Categories
How It All Fits Together
The Enterprise Service Bus
Design-Time Governance
Security Gateways
Adjacent Product Categories
Vendor Analysis
AmberPoint
BEA Systems
Cape Clear
Cisco Systems
Fiorano
IBM
IONA
Layer 7 Technologies
LogiLibrary
Oracle
Progress Software
Software AG
Sun Microsystems
TIBCO
Vitria
Vordel
Xtradyne Technologies
SOA Vendors and Product Categories
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