asimblogged.com - Asim Hanif about Enterprise Architecture, Serviceoriented Architecture and e-goverment

As I wrote here Network Computing was reviewing and testing 8 of the most prevalent ESBs. You can see the individual testresults and evaluations here and the summary here.

The Editor's Choice winner is now revealed and the winner is BEA Systems AquaLogic Service Bus 2.1 . The main arguments for selection of the winner is excellent Web services support, solid performance and a fair price. AquaLogic Service Bus supports WS-I Basic Security Profile, SAML 2.0 and the Web Services Security Username/Certificate profile. There are also testing facilities for WS-I compliance. According to the summary have AquaLogic a total score on 4,30, while IBM Websphere Message Broker 6.0 only got 3.15.

One nit with AquaLogic Service Bus is its lack of support for integration with external data sources, such as Network Computings Oracle9i database. AquaLogic Service Bus requires that such integration to be service-enabled using other mechanism, such as Web Logic Integration, and doesn't let you create a simple JDBC integration as part of the service orchestration.

I have seen the AquaLogic been demonstrated at a conference and it seemed to be userfriendly. The whole design-environment is completely Web-based with drag-and-drop functionality, which is unique among the 8 ESBs.

If your are an real ESB-geek, you can see the Webcasts from ESB-Con: Due Dilligence Day:-).

# posted by Asim Hanif - asimblogged.com @ 2:27 PM

Comments:

Heterogeneous Ecosystem

One of the main selling points of the new SOA architectures is its ability to support heterogeneous environments. A platforms ability to support Interoperability is therefore essential in my opinion.

It is natural that BEA support calls of external service though a SOA web service, but it is disappointing that this apparently currently is the only communication form supported.

If the vision of one ecosystem is to be fulfilled, then it is essential to realise interoperability between the different SOA-platforms.

If you look at SAP’s platform NetWeaver, then SAP and IBM and SAP and Microsoft have initiated project to ensure interoperability between NetWeaver & WepShare and NetWeaver & .Net respectively.

I am not aware of any formal corporation between SAP and BEA. However it is possible to call a SAP web services either through SAP service buss (XI) or in the current release also directly to the Web Application Server. Not all services & functions have been converted to SAP new switching functionality. (A big step is made in version ECC 6.0 NetWeaver 2004S. This version has been released to selected customer and is due for general release shortly).

More unclear is the ability to have interoperability around process orchestration and the user interface. SAP support that single Iviews (portal applets) can be shown in foreign portals (via. the WSRP standard) SAP’s Business Packages and User interface components base on SAP’s Web Dynpron can, as far as I am informed, not be showmen in foreign portals as SAP is using technology areas where the stands still are under development.

Interoperability is one of the areas that I am currently during reach on. I do not have the final answers yet, and is interested in any comments and experiences.

# posted by Steen Bruno Hansen : 3:32 PM

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25 April, 2006

BEA AquaLogic Service Bus 2.1 revealed as winner in Network Computings test and review of ESBs