Cisco bolsters SOA with Reactivity buy

“The AON platform movement hasn’t yet resulted in as much market traction as originally supposed,” says Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink. “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: InfoWorld

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

XML at Interop 2005: Is XML Still Relevant?

I was curious to see how the players in networking were being influenced by Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), both hot topics in the XML world. A recent research report from ZapThink (http://www.zapthink.com) predicted a growth in XML traffic on corporate networks from 15% in 2004 to just under 48% by 2008. With these numbers in mind, I decided to brave the windy canyons of the Big Apple and see for myself how XML and network managers were getting along.

Read more at: InformIT

IBM acquires DataPower

“DataPower’s product suite of integration, security and performance appliances will fill various holes within IBM’s broad SOA offering,” says Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst at research firm ZapThink. IBM is acquiring the sales leader in the application-oriented networking market — and a company that already has a solid relationship with IBM’s software, hardware and services groups, he says.

Read more at: NetworkWorld

SOA — Crossing the Application/Network Boundary

“SOA – Crossing the Application / Network Boundary”

Guest Experts: Jeff Browning, Product Manager, iControl (SOAP/XML API for network devices) and Steve Orrin, Chief Technology Officer, Sarvega

Topics:

• What impact does SOA have on the network?
• How can application developers consider network assets as a Services and resources they can consume?
• …
  

Can an SOA network push aside middleware?

“There’s a great big picture battle going on here about where the intelligence in a service-oriented architecture should lie,” said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst for ZapThink LLC. “On one hand you have the message-centric middleware model, on the other is the intelligent network approach.”

Bloomberg explained that, as XML devices, chip sets and network agents mature, they could take over the space traditionally occupied by integration software, eliminating the middleman, if you will.

“If we do service-oriented architecture right, the integration becomes the byproduct of the architecture,” he said. “Then you’ll be able to make security decisions, apply policies and have all your services intermediaries in the network itself.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

Intel pulls Sarvega into software effort

“Intel can take the XESOS technology and incorporate it into other value-add products,” says Jason Bloomberg, an analyst with ZapThink. While Intel would not market its own distinct products to IT shops, OEMs could marry their hardware or software to the Intel technology to take advantage of the XML capabilities.

“One theory is that Intel is looking into building out its blade-management infrastructure, and XESOS can be a good software component that helps Intel offer XML networking capabilities,” Bloomberg says. Intel’s OEMs could take those capabilities and incorporate them into their blades. Sarvega was finding a niche in the blade market, signing a deal with Egenera to integrate its XML wares into the company’s BladeFrame System.

Read more at: NetworkWorld