Test of ESB’s
An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is not a product, but a concept which can be implemented. However, this of doesn’t mean that a lot of vendors is not selling product called ESB’s. That being said, I am applauding the development we are seeing of the products in the ESB-area! This is simply a prerequisite for the implementation of SOA.
Evaluating these products is however quite a challenge as there are quite complex systems, and furthermore the sales-pitches of the different vendors should make any enterprise architect suspicious. Therefore I was pleased to see the initiative of Network Computing where they are testing a series of ESB products (ends at March 16):
- BEA Systems AquaLogic Service Bus 2.1
- Cape Clear ESB 6.5
- Fiorano SOA Platform 2006 3.7
- IBM WebSphere Message Broker 6.0
- Software AG Enterprise Service Integrator (ESI) 7.2
- Oracle SOA Suite
- Sonic Software SOA Suite 6.1
- Tibco
This is really good reading, and I believe a good motivation for the different vendors to make their tools even better