For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

European Airline Aims To Delight Passengers Through RFID Bag Tracking

Event-Driven Solution Lowers Costs While Promoting Happy Travelers

by Mike Gilpin, July 15, 2009

Processing lost bags costs airlines a lot of money: more than $1,200 per thousand passengers, not to mention the inconvenience to passengers. Thus, airlines are highly motivated to apply new technology to solving this problem. Through an innovative combination . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Create An Enterprise Integration Strategy To Lower Your Costs

A Methodology For Effectively Addressing Today's Business Integration Challenges

by Ken Vollmer, June 12, 2009

Enterprises have traditionally tackled integration challenges as an offshoot of their application development activities, but this approach's effectiveness is waning rapidly. As business challenges become more complex and involve more intricate interactions . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

SOA Policy Management: Vendors And Products

The Market Landscape For SOA Policy Management Infrastructure And Services

by Randy Heffner, February 6, 2009

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) policy management is an important and emerging subset of SOA strategy, SOA governance, and SOA platform planning. Because SOA policy features and functions are arising within multiple types of products, many different . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Service Buses, Q1 2009

Progress Software, Oracle, Software AG, IBM, And TIBCO Software Lead Among Commercial And Open Source Solutions

by Larry Fulton, January 26, 2009

In Forrester's 171-criteria evaluation of enterprise service bus (ESB) vendors, we found that Progress Software, Oracle, Software AG, IBM, and TIBCO Software support the broadest range of protocols and other features, have the most-focused ESB and service-oriented-architecture- . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

2009 Update: Evaluating Integration Alternatives

Scenario-Based Guidance For Choosing Products That Provide Application, Process, And Data Integration Features

by Ken Vollmer, Rob Karel, Larry Fulton, Noel Yuhanna, January 26, 2009

Technical innovation and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity continue to drive the evolution of the integration marketplace, leading to a market with a significantly different array of features and tools than what existed just 18 months ago. In . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Integration Vendors: Make Your Q4 Goals

The German Market Indicates Potential For International Middleware Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., October 14, 2008

Forrester provides annual forecasts for IT market spending, including the software market for Europe and North America. As Germany is an important market for middleware and integration software, we reviewed our predictions for 2008 in more detail and . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

by Randy Heffner, Mike Gilpin, August 18, 2008

For a single, isolated solution delivery project, it's OK to think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as just Web services (WS) standards for better application integration: Your application needs something from another one, and WS technology bridges . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Progress Software Snags IONA And Mindreef For SOA

How This New Combination Will Affect Application Development Professionals

by Mike Gilpin, Larry Fulton, August 1, 2008

Within one week, Progress Software announced its intention to acquire enterprise service bus (ESB) rival IONA Technologies and completed the acquisition of service-oriented architecture (SOA) testing startup Mindreef. The addition of Mindreef continues . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Selecting An Enterprise Service Bus

Understanding The Intersection Of Needs And Capabilities

by Larry Fulton, July 11, 2008

Selecting an enterprise service bus (ESB) is challenging because the products themselves are complex; they combine many discrete capabilities, there are many products available, and the definition of an ESB continues to evolve. The core functions are . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Vendor Positioning Review Self-Assessment Tool For Middleware Vendors  (239 KB XLS)

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 27, 2008

This vendor positioning review self-assessment tool gives you the opportunity to score your own vendor positioning and compare the results with the positioning of six leading middleware software vendors and their products, which have been evaluated with . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Middleware Vendor Positioning Benchmark, Q2 2008

A Review Of Middleware Marketing Practices With A Self-Assessment Tool

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 23, 2008

Forrester used its vendor positioning review (VPR) methodology to evaluate the positioning of six top middleware vendors across 14 criteria to determine where they are currently positioning themselves on the continuum between information technology (IT) . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Claiming Ground Against The ESB Gorillas

How Open Source Can Challenge The Established ESB Vendors

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., February 15, 2008

Many software vendors provide an enterprise service bus (ESB), one of the key pieces of infrastructure required for a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Now, the market is prepared for competition between commercial and open source license models. A . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

CEP Adoption Is Broader, Deeper, And More Business-Driven Than IT May Expect

by Charles Brett, January 31, 2008

Many application development and enterprise architecture professionals assume that complex event processing (CEP) is a natural extension of IT activities and systems. Current Forrester research indicates that while CEP complements IT, it most often operates . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Learn How To Embrace Lightweight ESBs

Lightweight ESBs Should Be An Option Within Your SOA Strategy

by Mike Gilpin, Larry Fulton, September 12, 2007

Enterprise service buses (ESBs) come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and some are so loaded with capabilities that they can take months to fully implement. Such complexity is one reason why developers often seek the simple solution: a lightweight . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

ESB Lessons Learned

Incremental Adoption And A Clear, Business-Focused Vision Are Key

by Larry Fulton, Mike Gilpin, August 21, 2007

Organizations adopting enterprise service bus (ESB) technology often encounter challenges with legacy technology, the need for new skills, organizational acceptance, and new service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance processes. Enterprise architects . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Shaping Your Middleware Strategy To Benefit From ESBs

by Larry Fulton, Mike Gilpin, May 21, 2007

Many enterprise message-oriented middleware (MOM) infrastructures have evolved into complex assemblies of multiple proprietary products. Despite innovations like enterprise application integration (EAI) and Java Message Service (JMS), business software . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Service Bus, Q2 2006

Cape Clear Software And BEA Systems Are The Top Performers

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Forrester evaluated leading enterprise service bus (ESB) vendors across more than 100 criteria and found that Cape Clear Software and BEA Systems were the top two performers overall. Other vendors in the leader category (from the highest score down) are . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Cape Clear Continues To Lead The ESB Market

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, June 30, 2006

Cape Clear retains its leading position in Forrester's latest review of the standalone ESB market. The vendor is one of the pioneers in the enterprise service bus (ESB) category and continues to be among the leaders in technology innovation and strategic . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Progress (Sonic) Provides Strong ESB Functionality

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, June 30, 2006

Sonic Software has operated for many years as an independent operating unit within the confines of its parent company, Progress Software. However, from this point forward it will formally become part of Progress Software and operate under that name. The . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IONA Provides ESB Features For The High End

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

IONA is the leader in multiprotocol support that is important at the high end of the ESB market. The vendor has also been a longtime leader in the object middleware business, and entered the enterprise service bus (ESB) market in late 2004 with the Artix . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

PolarLake Provides Strong, Targeted ESB Features

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

The PolarLake enterprise service bus (ESB) is easy to use, highly productive, and incorporates rich service-mediation features. PolarLake is a small supplier, but the vendor's customers include several large financial services, telecom, and government . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

BEA Provides A Strong ESB Solution Within The Solid Overall SOA Vision

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Larry Fulton, Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

BEA Systems' AquaLogic Service Bus (ALSB) provides a comprehensive set of well-integrated enterprise service bus (ESB) capabilities and also dovetails neatly into BEA's overall service-oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure strategy. Customers looking . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Fiorano Provides An Easy-To-Use ESB

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Fiorano Software built a business as a Java Message Service (JMS) vendor, grew its JMS products into an early enterprise service bus (ESB) by adding Web services infrastructure as a layer over JMS, and has since expanded the features on its ESB core. . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Software AG Makes A Strong Initial Showing In ESBs

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Software AG made a strong showing in its initial appearance in a Forrester enterprise service bus (ESB) Wave™, joining the ranks of the leaders. The vendor scored well in both the strategy and product offering and categories, providing exceptional . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IBM Delivers A Strong Vision And A Solid Initial Offering With Its ESB

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Larry Fulton, June 30, 2006

IBM's initial enterprise service bus (ESB) offering, called the IBM SOA Foundation, consists of three core components — WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, WebSphere Message Broker, and WebSphere Process Server — along with a comprehensive set of additional . . .