Talking Blocks
Actional and Westbridge Merge To Provide Integrated SOA Security and Management
ZapThink estimates there was approximately $194.3 million in Web-services management revenue in 2003, a number that is expected to leap to $1.4 billion this year and to $8.8 billion by 2005, reflecting both the growing use of the software and the larger role of dominant players in selling it. ZapThink expects the market to reach $30.4 billion by 2010.
Read more at: Web Services PipelineIs now the time to manage Web services?
In the meantime, vendors in the Web services management arena have been playing a near-constant game of musical chairs. “There are a lot of vendors, and they’re all trying to figure out their niche,” explained Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at consultancy ZapThink LLC in Waltham, Mass. “They’re all changing their story and moving around,” trying to figure out the most appropriate mix of features to meet customers’ needs.
Another big difference from even a year ago, noted ZapThink’s Bloomberg, is that “last year we saw soup-to-nuts functionality,” where every vendor implemented virtually every feature one could ever want in a management package. Now, however, some suppliers are starting to specialize in certain niches — managing or creating service-level agreements, for instance, or audit and version control. Some are targeting security as a core feature, while others are working to ensure that their management suites work with existing Web security leaders like VeriSign and Netegrity.
Read more at: Application Development TrendsWeb 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.
HP Acquires TruLogica to Build Up Infrastructure Strategy
The concept, however, is still in the beginning stages, with between 5 percent and 10 percent of large enterprises testing various technologies, according to market researcher ZapThink LLC.
“A lot of these announcements that HP is making are still well in advance of what customers will actually be using,” ZapThink analyst Jason Bloomberg said. “This is a long-term strategy for HP in building their adaptive enterprise technology.”
Read more at: TechWebWeb-Services Market Poised For Consolidation
Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with XML research firm ZapThink, says Oblix “wasn’t the first company that came to mind” when he considered potential buyers of Web-services-management firms. Until now, identity management has been a system at the heart of the enterprise, controlling access to internal applications.
Now, Schmelzer says, Web services may be extended outside the company to business partners, provided they’re linked to an access-control system, such as Oblix’s NetPoint. The Oblix move may signal “another wave of consolidation” as identity-management vendors team up with Web-services management, he adds.
Read more at: InformationWeekOblix to Buy Confluent in Web Services Play
Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst at research outfit ZapThink, said Oblix’ acquisition of Confluent is a departure from the norm for companies in the identity management and Web services management industries, though the synergies between the two make it an ideal arrangement.
“Most companies in these two markets have been happy with partnerships to complement one another’s strengths, but there’s no question the Oblix/Confluent combination promises to offer a more comprehensive management solution than any other one company might be able to offer,” he told internetnews.com.
Read more at: Internetnews.comOblix buys into Web services management
While HP and Computer Associates offer a broad suite of functions, Oblix’s software is more specific to identity management. The acquisition of Confluent by Oblix could indicate that interest in Web services management will increasingly come from a broad range of companies, beyond the traditional software management realm, according to Ron Schmelzer, an analyst at Web services research company ZapThink.
“If you asked me who I thought would buy Confluent, I would not have put Oblix on the list,” said Schmelzer. “I think we’ll start to see consolidation from different places (than traditional management providers).”
The Confluent software can help Oblix manage networking policies other than security and network access, Schmelzer noted. Confluent’s software could act as an extension to Oblix’s current software line with the ability to track whether a Web service application is available and whether it’s performing adequately, he said.
Read more at: CNetIBM, Microsoft on opposite sides of standards fence
“There are some specific needs for notification in grids that Microsoft and others didn’t want to consider,” said Ronald Schmelzer, a senior analyst with Waltham, Mass.-based ZapThink LLC. “So, basically, IBM had some priorities for their event messaging spec that weren’t priorities for Microsoft and others.”
So, what do all of these WS-related specifications mean to users? Not much, said Schmelzer, of ZapThink. “Our concern is that we’re seeing a little bit of a spec glut,” he said. “Customers don’t implement specs, they implement products.”
Schmelzer said that it can take a year or more before specifications find their way into software products. That’s true of WS-Eventing, which probably won’t make its debut in a product until Longhorn, the next version of Microsoft’s Windows, comes out in about 2006, he said.
Read more at: SearchWebServicesWeb services shakeout looming
“We definitely see (that) 2004 will be make-or-break for all new entrants,” said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst at Web services research company ZapThink. “A couple of those (management) companies might survive, but five years down the road, they will be different companies.”
Read more at: CNetFive Technologies To Watch for 2004
Expect the Web services management market to gather more steam in 2004, as well as consolidate further, analysts and solution providers predict. Research firm ZapThink projects that the market will grow to $13 billion by 2007 from $35 million in 2003.
$13 Billion: Size of the Web Services Management market predicted by 2007 – Source: ZapThink.
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