Progress builds alternative SOA stack with Actional buy

“It’s probably one of the best non-platforms out there,” [Jason Bloomberg] said. “Progress has taken the heterogeneity story to heart, which is a better story for SOA. You don’t want to have a tightly-coupled product line.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

IT companies are hooking up like divorcees at a Vegas wedding chapel

The ZapThink guys have it right that this is only the second inning (given the weather, it can’t be too soon for baseball metaphors) of a nine-inning outing of SOA components and supplier consolidation.

Read more at: ZDnet

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

Service-oriented hype to meet hard realities

“The issue is that architecture is a best practice,” says Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with ZapThink. “The tool set will get you only part of the way. Architecture is a discipline; you don’t get it from a tool. You need to know what services to build, how to build them at the right level of granularity and how to build them loosely coupled.”

“There is still some shakin’ going on,” Schmelzer says about the development of key specifications such as business process, management and reliability. But he notes that the core Web services specifications such as XML, SOAP and WSDL are “pretty mature.”

“Companies should be aware of where the specs are at, but by and large, individual companies don’t implement the spec directly anyway. They look for products,” Schmelzer says. “So companies need to put pressure on the vendors to collaborate and get these specs out.”

Read more at: NetworkWorld

Actional, Westbridge Merge in SOA Union

ZapThink senior analyst Jason Bloomberg said the Actional-Westbridge merger changes the competitive landscape for SOA enablement providers.

“This acquisition definitely makes sense for both parties, as their technologies are reasonably complementary, and the combined offering is comprehensive and powerful,” Bloomberg told internetnews.com. “They will definitely continue to give Digital Evolution and AmberPoint in particular a run for their money.”

“But make no mistake — everybody was expecting continued consolidation in this space, so Actional’s competitors will not be caught by surprise,” he said.

Read more at: InternetNews

Actional, Westbridge merge Web services capabilities

ZapThink LLC co-founder and analyst Ronald Schmelzer said more consolidation is inevitable in this market.

“You’re starting to see more of these where it makes sense. Many of these standalone vendors are partnering as they try to establish a bigger front against IBM, HP and CA,” Schmelzer said. “They’ll either be absorbed, or they’ll have to band together.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

Actional, Westbridge Merge

“This makes sense for both companies,” says analyst Jason Bloomberg of ZapThink. “Actional was stronger in management, Westbridge stronger with security, and to compete with Digital Evolution and AmberPoint, they have to be strong on both sides.” After the acquisition, Bloomberg assesses Actional as being “fairly complete” in Web services management, so there may not be future M&A activity in the company’s immediate future.

Read more at: Line56

Westbridge Merger Is Where The Actional Is

Ronald Schmelzer, analyst for market-research firm ZapThink LLC, said the merger is “continuing evidence of the consolidation of the Web services and SOA markets.”

“We should expect to see more as companies desire an increasingly coherent, single-vendor solution for their Web services security, management, and policy requirements,” Schmelzer said.

Schmelzer agreed that the merger would widen both companies’ portfolios.

“It allows them to offer a more comprehensive security and management solution to their mutual customers, and provides reinforcement for the whole industry that Web services security and management issues are significant ones for companies to solve,” he said.

Read more at: TechWeb

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 Pipeline

Web services pose identity management challenges

“The better idea is that you’re really supposed to separate the notion of identity of who you are from the specific system,” said Schmelzer. “You should have an identity that is separate from the portal and the ERP system and the CRM system. But somehow [those applications] have to respect that identity.”

“There is this whole area of enterprise identity management that is really burgeoning because of this context issue,” Schmelzer added.

The key to separating the notion of identity from specific systems is implementing an architecture that supports policy-driven identity management, explained Jason Bloomberg, also a senior analyst with ZapThink.

“You need to have an enterprise-wide sense of who the users are and what they’re entitled to do that cuts across different applications,” Bloomberg said. “And it has to be a way that maintains the policies that apply to those users.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices