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Software AG goes in an interesting direction for SOA governance
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 by admin
As part of yesterday’s release of the latest iteration of its webMethods Insight product Software AG announced an OEM partnership with Progress Software. This announcement adds the Actional runtime SOA management and monitoring technology (which Progress acquired back in January 2006) to Software AG’s existing Centrasite design-time governance capabilities (which were bolstered by the acquisition of Infravio in September 2006) and the runtime policy enforcement provided by its webMethods X-Broker and partner Layer 7′s XML Firewall.
The incorporation of runtime SOA management and monitoring functionality into Insight is a necessary evolution of Software AG-webMethods integration strategy that we commented on just over a year ago. It’s long been our position that SOA is more than a standards-based approach to software development and integration. The business value of a service-oriented initiative depends on a recognition that software services are experienced, just like their real-world analogues. The quality of that experience depends on a governance approach that extends throughout the service lifecycle, where the contracts defined when services are designed are subsequently enforced through policies once they are deployed and running – and where runtime metrics are captured to provide insight into the service level quality that is actually exeprienced. Furthermore, those metrics can be used to inform and support change management processes, so closing the SOA lifecycle loop.
Whilst the announcement doesn’t come as any great surprise, the source of the runtime management and monitoring functionality does. When Oracle confirmed it’s intention to acquire BEA, I said:
It [the acquisition] leaves some of the other bigger specialist players – TIBCO, SoftwareAG (and to a lesser extent Progress and Red Hat) in an interesting position. On the one hand they will be more attractive, particularly for SOA and BPM, to customers looking for an application-independent infrastructure offering.
Software AG has gone to a potential competitor for the mantle of best-of-breed, specialist alternative to the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. If you had told me on Friday that Software AG was going to strike an OEM deal for SOA management and monitoring I’d have put my money on AmberPoint, which has historically been the OEM of choice for the likes of BEA and TIBCO.
I am not quite sure what to make of this decision. AmberPoint doesn’t compete with Software AG directly and has established a healthy and growing customer base, as well as partnerships with some of the leading systems integrators – and a technology partnership with Software AG! Software AG’s decision comes not long after Oracle’s decision to drop AmberPoint. As we pointed out in our analysis of Oracle’s roadmap for the BEA integration, we don’t have any hard evidence for Oracle’s claims that it had received negative feedback from BEA customers but it’s something we will continue to explore. In light of the decision to go with Actional, it will be intriguing to see how the partnership evolves and how things pan out when Software AG and Progress are in a competitive situation.
This acquisition should be welcome news to Software AG customers that have invested in the company’s SOA offerings as it will save them the time and effort of plugging the runtime governance gap that existed prior to the partnership. Those embarking on a significant SOA intiative should also give Software AG careful consideration, particularly if they are not wedded to one of the mega-platform providers.
Posted in Uncategorized
Neil,
Nice thoughtful post.
A general theme though, is the surprise you have that Progress Actional was chosen, and not Amberpoint. Clearly, I’ll have a biased opinion (I’ve been with Actional for 6 years) and I have inside information not appropriate to share. But… I will point to a line in the press release that really sums it up…
“The minimal overhead required by webMethods Insight ensures more rapid deployment, ‘smart’ monitoring, and deeper management of the end-to-end SOA landscape. This is in stark contrast with earlier approaches to run-time management, which created additional cost and complexity, constrained run-time performance, and reinforced existing service silos.”
I’ve put in bold the key point there… they learned from experience with other (Amberpoint) solutions earlier in their partnering history.
The decision was probably not limited to technology, look (http://bit.ly/4e7e1a) at the way that Amberpoint lumps TIBCO (a partner) in the same category as Actional (a competitor) and knocks us both directly in a press release! Very unusual behavior.
Also, I’ll add that Layer 7 have developed and released an Agent for Actional, so Software AG can bring it all together in one place. I’m not sure about Layer 7 support in Amberpoint.
I’ll also point out that in May, Amberpoint announced support for both BEA ALSB and Oracle Fusion, and not only did Oracle make the effort to end the agreement, they acquired ClearApp, A company with only part of the solution that Amberpoint brings to the game in that they only support Fusion, not BEA products. Oracle showed clearly that they did not want to work with Amberpoint even though they had a clear need to fill a gap in their product line.
And, since I’ve been a bit aggressive here in speaking against a competitor, I’ll point out that (1) Software AG will continue to support the Amberpoint technology relationship, and existing customers, and (2) that both Amberpoint and Managed Methods are still listed as partners on the Centrasite Community website. So customers who evaluate and select Amberpoint will still have an integrated solution with Centrasite.
Also, it’s quite possible that Oracle couldn’t purchase Amberpoint (for whatever reason) and didn’t want to partner with them because SAP is an investor – purely a business decision, having nothing to do with performance/scalability or other technical factors.
I want to make sure there is proper attribution here due to the intensity (passion) of the post… David Bressler, djbressler@gmail.com, I’m an employee of Progress, and have been part of the Actional team and competing against Amberpoint successfully since October 2002.
Neil,
Nice thoughtful post.
A general theme though, is the surprise you have that Progress Actional was chosen, and not Amberpoint. Clearly, I’ll have a biased opinion (I’ve been with Actional for 6 years) and I have inside information not appropriate to share. But… I will point to a line in the press release that really sums it up…
“The minimal overhead required by webMethods Insight ensures more rapid deployment, ‘smart’ monitoring, and deeper management of the end-to-end SOA landscape. This is in stark contrast with earlier approaches to run-time management, which created additional cost and complexity, constrained run-time performance, and reinforced existing service silos.”
I’ve put in bold the key point there… they learned from experience with other (Amberpoint) solutions earlier in their partnering history.
The decision was probably not limited to technology, look (http://bit.ly/4e7e1a) at the way that Amberpoint lumps TIBCO (a partner) in the same category as Actional (a competitor) and knocks us both directly in a press release! Very unusual behavior.
Also, I’ll add that Layer 7 have developed and released an Agent for Actional, so Software AG can bring it all together in one place. I’m not sure about Layer 7 support in Amberpoint.
I’ll also point out that in May, Amberpoint announced support for both BEA ALSB and Oracle Fusion, and not only did Oracle make the effort to end the agreement, they acquired ClearApp, A company with only part of the solution that Amberpoint brings to the game in that they only support Fusion, not BEA products. Oracle showed clearly that they did not want to work with Amberpoint even though they had a clear need to fill a gap in their product line.
And, since I’ve been a bit aggressive here in speaking against a competitor, I’ll point out that (1) Software AG will continue to support the Amberpoint technology relationship, and existing customers, and (2) that both Amberpoint and Managed Methods are still listed as partners on the Centrasite Community website. So customers who evaluate and select Amberpoint will still have an integrated solution with Centrasite.
Also, it’s quite possible that Oracle couldn’t purchase Amberpoint (for whatever reason) and didn’t want to partner with them because SAP is an investor – purely a business decision, having nothing to do with performance/scalability or other technical factors.
I want to make sure there is proper attribution here due to the intensity (passion) of the post… David Bressler, djbressler@gmail.com, I’m an employee of Progress, and have been part of the Actional team and competing against Amberpoint successfully since October 2002.
I’ve been corrected on my own blog comments (http://bit.ly/ySuya) and wanted to correct myself here. Apparently ClearApp has support for BEA WLS and other platforms.
I’ve been corrected on my own blog comments (http://bit.ly/ySuya) and wanted to correct myself here. Apparently ClearApp has support for BEA WLS and other platforms.
We had another comment on this post that made a good point – but unfortunately contained an insult to another commenter. We don’t like that sort of thing so we rejected the comment.
So – Anonymous, if you fancy submitting the comment again, but this time without the insult, we’d be very grateful.
We had another comment on this post that made a good point – but unfortunately contained an insult to another commenter. We don’t like that sort of thing so we rejected the comment.
So – Anonymous, if you fancy submitting the comment again, but this time without the insult, we’d be very grateful.
Thanks David
The primary rationale for my surprise is the fact that Software AG and Progress are competitors and that Software AG already has a technology partnership with AmberPoint.
I am not in a position to comment on Software AG’s experiences with alternative run-time management solutions (although it is in line with some of the comments that Oracle made when it discussed its roadmap for BEA). That being said, I have no doubt that Software AG undertook a detailed due diligence exercise which encompassed technology, business and cultural aspects of an OEM relationship and that AmberPoint and others (SOA Software?) were part of that exercise.
Was it AmberPoint referencing TIBCO alongside Actional and SOA Software? As far as I can tell it was Yphise who analysed SOA governance solutions, of which TIBCO is one.
Layer 7 is listed as a technology partner of AmberPoint but again I am not in a position to comment on the effectiveness of the integration.
With respect to the Oracle decision, my own view is that Oracle chose to go with the web servces management capabilities it obtained with the Oblix acquisition. I am less convinced by the SAP point: Oracle partners with Business Objects and SAP is more than an investor!
Thanks David
The primary rationale for my surprise is the fact that Software AG and Progress are competitors and that Software AG already has a technology partnership with AmberPoint.
I am not in a position to comment on Software AG’s experiences with alternative run-time management solutions (although it is in line with some of the comments that Oracle made when it discussed its roadmap for BEA). That being said, I have no doubt that Software AG undertook a detailed due diligence exercise which encompassed technology, business and cultural aspects of an OEM relationship and that AmberPoint and others (SOA Software?) were part of that exercise.
Was it AmberPoint referencing TIBCO alongside Actional and SOA Software? As far as I can tell it was Yphise who analysed SOA governance solutions, of which TIBCO is one.
Layer 7 is listed as a technology partner of AmberPoint but again I am not in a position to comment on the effectiveness of the integration.
With respect to the Oracle decision, my own view is that Oracle chose to go with the web servces management capabilities it obtained with the Oblix acquisition. I am less convinced by the SAP point: Oracle partners with Business Objects and SAP is more than an investor!
Neil,
It wasn’t SOA Software, but I’m not sure if they’re released who the third company was. I think they have, and like Amberpoint, they remain a partner of Software AG. They are, however, a company that in my estimation doesn’t compete directly with Actional.
It was Yphise that did the evaluation, but… I was part of that evaluation, and they did not do a hands-on evaluation. Amberpoint announced that it was… and in fact, then said that they were better than us and TIBCO (right in the subhead). It is unusual for a press release to call out specific competitors, moreso when those competitors are partners!
Noted about SAP. I’ll pull that standard objection from my repertoire. You’ve convinced me, Oracle would likely work with them independent of the SAP investment.
Thanks!
David
Neil,
It wasn’t SOA Software, but I’m not sure if they’re released who the third company was. I think they have, and like Amberpoint, they remain a partner of Software AG. They are, however, a company that in my estimation doesn’t compete directly with Actional.
It was Yphise that did the evaluation, but… I was part of that evaluation, and they did not do a hands-on evaluation. Amberpoint announced that it was… and in fact, then said that they were better than us and TIBCO (right in the subhead). It is unusual for a press release to call out specific competitors, moreso when those competitors are partners!
Noted about SAP. I’ll pull that standard objection from my repertoire. You’ve convinced me, Oracle would likely work with them independent of the SAP investment.
Thanks!
David
David
I will have to leave it down to Amberpoint/Yphise to comment on the evaluation.
Neil
David
I will have to leave it down to Amberpoint/Yphise to comment on the evaluation.
Neil