Cisco To Acquire XML Gateway Provider Reactivity

“Reactivity adds robust security and policy management capabilities to the Cisco platform where it was sorely lacking,” Ronald Schmelzer, analyst for ZapThink, said in an email. Cisco’s application management platform hasn’t received the market traction as originally expected, so “it’s possible that this acquisition can give Cisco the kick in the pants it needs to effectively take advantage of a growing opportunity for management of XML and Web services traffic.”

Read more at: Cisco To Acquire XML Gateway Provider Reactivity

Cisco Fills XML Processing Gap With Reactivity

ZapThink analyst Ronald Schmelzer said Reactivity would give Cisco robust security and policy management capabilities to the Cisco platform where it was sorely lacking.

“It seems that the AON platform movement hasn’t yet resulted in as much market traction as originally supposed, and so it’s possible that this acquisition can give Cisco the kick in the pants it needs to effectively take advantage of a growing opportunity for management of XML and Web services traffic,” Schmelzer said.

Read more at: InternetNews

Cisco’s Reactivity Buy Further Consolidates SOA

This latest acquisition is further evidence that the markets for XML, Web services, and SOA are experiencing significant consolidation, said Ronald Schmelzer, an analyst with ZapThink. “With IBM adding Datapower to their lineup, Intel adding both Sarvega and Conformative, and F5 Networks further maturing their offerings, the addition of Reactivity to Cisco’s offerings goes a long way to signaling that we’re in the era of incumbents increasingly dominating the space once pioneered by the startups,” Schmelzer said. “Of course, there are certainly outstanding startups like Layer 7 Technologies, Forum Systems, and companies like Xambala and Tarari still making waves in the market.”

Moreover, Reactivity adds robust security and policy management capabilities to the Cisco platform where it was “sorely lacking,” Schmelzer added. “Indeed, it seems that the AON [Cisco's Application-Oriented Networking technology] platform movement hasn’t yet resulted in as much market traction as originally supposed, and so it’s possible that this acquisition can give Cisco the kick in the pants it needs to effectively take advantage of a growing opportunity for management of XML and Web services traffic.”

Read more at: eWeek

Cisco Systems buys Reactivity in SOA networking play

Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink LLC, said the acquisition may help SONA gain traction that has so far eluded it.

“Specifically, Reactivity adds robust security and policy management capabilities to the Cisco platform where it was sorely lacking,” Schmelzer said. “Indeed, it seems that the SONA platform movement hasn’t yet resulted in as much market traction as originally supposed, and so it’s possible that this acquisition can give Cisco the kick in the pants it needs to effectively take advantage of a growing opportunity for management of XML and Web Services traffic.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

AmberPoint Takes Duo Approach To SOA Policy Governance

“The problem with many of the appliances and security solutions in the Web services and SOA space is that they require you to define the policies within their own solution, causing problems when there’s multiple systems in the enterprise,” Ronald Schmelzer, analyst for ZapThink LLC, said. “There’s no reason to make such a tight coupling, and so, what Amberpoint is doing is right on par with what companies are increasingly looking for in environments of heterogeneity.”

While AmberPoint may have an “early mover advantage,” other vendors are either adding, or are looking to add, similar capabilities. Those vendors include Layer 7 Technologies, Forum Systems and SOA Software; as well as policy and metadata management vendors like Software AG, Infravio, and Logic Library, Schmelzer said. Big platform vendors IBM, BEA Systems, and others are also moving in the same direction.

Read more at: CMP / TechWeb

ZapThink: Enterprises Not Buying Service-Oriented Architecture by Name; Consulting Firms Integrate SOA Best Practices with Business-Focused Offerings

BALTIMORE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 6, 2006–ZapThink released a report today showing that few enterprises are specifically budgeting for or requesting Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) by name. Instead, business buyers budget for specific solutions to their business problems, and more consulting firms than ever before leverage Service Orientation best practices to provide those solutions. The main buyer of such initiatives has shifted toward the non-technical, business part of the enterprise.

“The clear pattern with today’s SOA projects is that they are increasingly business-focused,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink. “Many consulting firms are integrating SOA best practices into a broad differentiated offering that is not necessarily specific to SOA.”

ZapThink expects the percentage of IT projects overall that leverage Service Orientation best practices to continue to grow over time, and those best practices will soon become ubiquitous. ZapThink also expects the percentage of IT projects that are named, SOA-specific projects to peak in 2007, with Service Orientation best practices increasingly subsumed within the expected, routine part of IT projects more broadly after that date.

Key findings of the report include:

• Breaking up a large SOA initiative into multiple, discrete projects is an effective way to manage the risk of architectural change.
• Integration-centric offerings and technologies are taking a back seat to organizations’ need to improve their overall approach to enterprise architecture.
• Many SOA consulting providers are confused by product vendors who often distort the true message of SOA to best fit their product offerings.
• Many SOA consulting firms confuse architecture with implementation, causing significant issues in short-term SOA adoption.
• Average deal sizes for SOA projects range from an average of $150,000 for integration-focused efforts to several million dollars for enterprisewide and compliance-focused initiatives.

The report, available on ZapThink’s Web site at www.zapthink.com, features several firms offering SOA consulting services, including Accenture (NYSE: ACN – News), AgilePath, Alphacourt, Anexinet, Arc Aspicio, Avanade, BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS – News), BearingPoint (NYSE: BE – News), Bouvet, CapGemini (Paris), CherryRoad Technologies, City Practitioners, D. Callingham & Assoc., Daugherty Business Solutions, Definition 6, e-Brilliance, eSigma, gen-i, Geniant, Hitachi Consulting (NYSE: HIT – News), HP (NYSE: HPQ – News), IBM Global Services (NYSE: IBM – News), Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY – News), innoQ, IPT, Kanbay (NASDAQ: KBAY – News), Keane (NYSE: KEA – News), Lydian Technology, MITRE, Modhelus, Momentum SI, MphasiS, MW2 Consulting, Network Effects, Online Business Systems, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ProSolveIT, Satyam (NYSE: SAY – News), Schumacher Partners, Semantic Arts, SentientPoint, SilverTrain, SOA Software, SOA Systems, Software AG (Frankfurt), SRL Group, Statera, Summa Technologies, Synergy International, Systemiclogic, TasmanAve, TeamSOA, Tier1 Innovation, Voyant Group, Wipro (NYSE: WIT – News), WM-Data (Stockholm), and XWebServices. The report also mentions the following vendors: AmberPoint, Composite Software, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Infravio, LogicLibrary, Mercury (OTC: MERQ – News), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT – News), Mindreef, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL – News), Reactivity, RedHat (NASDAQ: RHAT – News), SAP (NYSE: SAP – News), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW – News), WSO2, and WebLayers.

Read more at: ZapThink Press Release

SOA Consulting: Current Market Trends

As the practice of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) matures, professional services firms that offer SOA-related services continue to lead the market in the creation and application of best practices for SOA. For this report, ZapThink surveyed 58 consulting firms who identified themselves as offering SOA consulting services in order to assemble a detailed, global picture of the state of the market for SOA consulting worldwide. ZapThink found a substantial maturation of SOA consulting offerings across the board, with an increased focus on the business value that SOA can provide. While there still remains some confusion over the nature and applicability of SOA, methodologies, engagements, and understanding of the SOA value proposition have all dramatically improved in the last few years to the point that SOA best practices are increasingly being taken for granted as the standard approaches for solving a broad range of business problems in organizations around the world.

Reactivity Unveils Appliances For XML Networking

Ron Schmelzer, analyst for ZapThink LLC, said appliances to help the performance and security of XML data traffic has gained traction in the market since IBM’s acquisition last October of Datapower.

Reactivity has built “compelling” products for organizations that need a mechanism for automating the configuration of a system for different data types, Schmelzer said. While the company’s technology raises the bar for other vendors in the space, if demand continues to grow, then it’s likely other appliance vendors will follow suit, especially IBM. The latter company recently announced data handling capabilities in the Datapower XI50 appliance.

“So, (Reactvity) has interesting stuff that points at the continued evolution of the space, but nothing that can’t be easily reproduced by competitors if the market starts to demand that,” Schmelzer said.

Read more at: CMP / VarBusiness

A Forum for Delivering Web Services

ZapThink analyst Jason Bloomberg said that Forum has previously offered security and management capabilities.

“By adding reliable messaging, profile management, distributed transactions, and complex event processing, they are now able to offer a much more complete SOA intermediary offering, most similar to what, say, SOA Software is offering,” Bloomberg said.

Read more at: InternetNews

Infravio Embarks on European and US Event Circuit to Promote SOA Link Initiative and the Launch of X-Registry 6

Building on the debut of Infravio X-Registry(TM) Platform 6 and the SOA Link initiative, Infravio Inc., a leading provider of SOA technologies, embarked this month on a European and US event circuit to share its expertise and demonstrate its technological advances in SOA registry/repository and governance. Events include:

— ZapThink 4th SOA Practitioner’s Forum, Zurich, Switzerland, June 22, 2006 (www.zapthink.com/event.html?id=119)

– ZapThink 4th SOA Practitioner’s Forum, Frankfurt, Germany, June 23, 2006 (www.zapthink.com/event.html?id=120)

Read more at: Infravio Press Release