SOA vendors link up for interoperability

SOA Link and other recent developments are evidence that SOA is moving beyond the “hype” stage, said Ron Schmelzer, an analyst at Zapthink, which sells research to SOA firms.

“SOA’s not hype. SOA and Web services are moving beyond the ‘connect things together’ stage. We’re at a point where it’s becoming a part of the mainstream,” Schmelzer said.

“That’s a bit less sexy, because you’re getting down to brass tacks: implementation details, not the big news stories,” Schmelzer said.

Read more at: InfoWorld

SOA Vendors Link For Interoperability

ZapThink analyst Ronald Schmelzer, whose research firm covers distributed computing, said it’s not particularly surprising that software powers are not there.

He said larger platform vendors will always push the fact that interoperability starts and ends with their platform primarily, and then secondarily to other products, while members of SOA Link know that other products, platforms, and infrastructure have to play in order for the group to prosper.

“This means that any SOA Link-implementing vendor acknowledges that they will interoperate with all other SOA Link vendors, including platform competitors,” Schmelzer said.

“It would be harder for the platform vendors to get a win by making such a claim. However, if customers start demanding this sort of vendor-neutral interoperability, then yes, at some point, these bigger fish will have to join the party.”

Read more at: InternetNews

Breakthrough Year for Infravio X-Registry Platform(TM); 2005 Cements Leadership Position for SOA Governance Vendor Infravio

“Companies moving to implement enterprise-scale SOA need Registry Repository and Governance capabilities,” said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst, ZapThink, LLC. “Infravio’s continued significant growth is evidence of the strength of its position in the market, cemented by its early presence with credible SOA offerings, advanced capabilities of its registry and metadata management products, and increasing capacity to develop new SOA functionality. 2006 should prove to be an even more significant year for Registry Repository providers.”

Read more at: Infravio Press Release

HP Joins SOA Fray With BEA

Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst for SOA and Web services research firm ZapThink, said HP is making its play at the right time.

“It’s definitely not too late for HP to move into the SOA space in a big way,” Bloomberg told internetnews.com. “In fact, their timing is probably quite good, considering that the number of enterprises who are now considering SOAs has spiked over the last few months. It didn’t make sense for the likes of HP to offer a strong SOA story through last year, because they weren’t yet getting strong demand for such products from their customers.”

Bloomberg said SOAs have been on HP’s roadmap for OpenView for well over a year, as evidenced by the Talking Blocks acquisition.

“Now the time is right for HP, as well as CA, to move into leadership positions in the Web Services Management space — with IBM Tivoli not far behind,” he continued. “As for the small players — Actional, AmberPoint, Blue Titan, Digital Evolution, Flamenco Networks, Infravio, NetIQ, and Westbridge Technology — the clock is ticking.”

Read more at: InternetNews.com

Web Services Management

Of all the markets that the rush to capitalize on Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) spawned, the space known as Web Services Management (WSM) is likely the most turbulent. Marked by a large number of new entrant vendors and cutthroat competition for a steadily increasing number of customers, WSM products have come to offer a core set of functionality as well as many of the key capabilities necessary for companies to build and run SOAs.

In spite of significant press and early adopter attention to the vendors in this space, there have been too many vendors chasing too few deals, and as a result, most WSM vendors have reconfigured their product and marketing strategies at least once, as they seek the right niche to build the customer traction so critical to their survival. As a result, the WSM market is filled with short-term fragmentation, as vendors jockey for position, and longer-term consolidation, as incumbent vendors make strategic acquisitions and build their WSM capabilities as the market matures.

This report provides WSM vendors with the perspective they need to focus their market and product strategies for the next one to two years, and it illustrates the complete WSM landscape for end-users, enabling them to understand which vendors will be able to provide the capabilities they require, both now and as they build out their Service-Oriented Architectures.

ZapThink: Web Services Management Market Set To Expand Dramatically; Growth Tempered by Fragmentation of Market Leading to Dominance by Incumbent Vendors

“Companies are coming to understand that Web Services Management is critical for both the operation of Web Services as well as SOAs,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink. “As a result, vendors in this space are finding customer traction by offering a range of different capabilities, from monitoring, to SOA enablement, to metadata management.”

Read more at: BusinessWire

NetIQ Teams With, Investing In Infravio

“This is a smart and forward-looking alliance for both Infravio and NetIQ,” stated Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink, a leading research and analysis group focusing on emerging technologies and their business impact. “As companies look to leverage the power of Web services and build Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), systems management serves both to monitor the operation of the services, as well as to maintain the services layer that forms the core of the SOA. NetIQ and Infravio clearly complement each other with their strengths in systems management and SOA domain expertise, respectively. As a result, this partnership promises to provide substantial value to customers who are looking to build agile enterprise SOAs.”

Read more at: ebizQ

NetIQ and Infravio Form Strategic Alliance to Lead the Web Services Management Market

“This is a smart and forward-looking alliance for both Infravio and NetIQ,” stated Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink, a leading research and analysis group focusing on emerging technologies and their business impact. “As companies look to leverage the power of Web services and build Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), systems management serves both to monitor the operation of the services, as well as to maintain the services layer that forms the core of the SOA. NetIQ and Infravio clearly complement each other with their strengths in systems management and SOA domain expertise, respectively. As a result, this partnership promises to provide substantial value to customers who are looking to build agile enterprise SOAs.”

Read more at: Business Wire

NetIQ Partners With Infravio, Enters Web Service Management Market

“They have the ability to be a bit more agile than larger players,” Bloomberg said of NetIQ. “If you look at HP, for instance, they’re taking quite a bit of time to roll out real web services management capabilities (in OpenView). NetIQ, with the Infravio partnership, will likely be able to roll out competitive products in the next few months.”

Read more at: TechWeb