* SOA Link vendor members work to ensure product interoperability
In past columns, we have addressed the gap between service-oriented architecture vendors of two generations: stack vendors and best-of-breed vendors. The stack vendors feature hefty solution stacks that include both SOA-specific products and those that are more generic. Their integration strategies are often evolved from earlier enterprise application integration or electronic data interchange solutions.
In contrast, best-of-breed vendors typically evolved as Web services standards developed during the mid to late 1990s. While stack vendors have the advantage of offering “one-stop SOA” solutions, ready to tackle production-grade SOA deployments out of the box, best-of-breed vendors have the advantage of being standards-based from scratch. Their products were designed around partnerships, standards and interoperability.
This dichotomy was underlined by the announcement on May 1 of the formation of SOA Link, an interoperability alliance among 16 of the top pure-play SOA vendors in the industry. Founding members of the alliance include, among others, AmberPoint, Forum Systems, Infravio, Intalio, Reactivity, SOA Software and webMethods. Notably, none of the stack vendors was a foundational member of this alliance.
SOA Link is a public statement by SOA governance vendors, whose products include registries, repositories, execution platforms, run time governance, monitoring, and related products, that their solutions will be interoperable with one another. While this alliance is not formalized by specific testing and certification processes or by a standards body, it is unique. It is one of the first alliances of its kind among a group of vendors that, in effect, count on one another to provide end-to-end SOA lifecycle solutions to their customers.
Today, customers have two basic options when selecting SOA products. One is to go to a single source – a stack vendor. A second is to look to best-of-breed vendors. Up until now, the second option has been considerably more complex than the first. One reason is because even when vendors are standards based, many standards are still early state at best, and interoperability can be iffy. Further, product selection is more complex simply because there are multiple solutions in each category to choose from. SOA Link makes the second option more viable. In effect, it is an endorsement of vendors that have recognized partner vendors they can depend on to provide high quality solutions to their customers. Narrowing the field can make product selection more straightforward for end users and reduce the inherent risk associated with the selection process.
SOA Link lends weight and credence to the host of “standards from scratch” vendors that have struggled to establish their viability and value to the marketplace. These vendors are downplaying this alliance because of its relative informality. However, this is an interesting initiative for exactly that reason. This partnership isn’t contractual or formalized, but the spirit of “co-opetition” it represents seems to fit with the standards-based direction of the industry today. It will be interesting to watch this alliance as time goes on. Particularly if it continues to strengthen, it could eventually prove to be a challenger to the venerable enterprise service bus execution environment by offering a viable and lightweight alternative.
