XML Appliances – Strategic Shift or Tactical Technology Flash

Posted by TomRose on December 29, 2008 under EA, SOA | Read the First Comment

XML Appliances for increased performance of XML based messaging protocols are the rage it seems. Forum Systems, Sarvega , Reactivity, Layer 7, DataPower are a portion of the players that have emerged over the last few years, and are being acquired as fast as they are created.

  • Sarvega, acquired by Intel
  • Reactivity acquired by Cisco
  • DataPower acquired by IBM
Better XML processing achieved through XML/XSLT engines implemented in hardware, as opposed to software on a general purpose CPU. A bit oversimplified, however, it’s the general direction. Interestingly, the industry has spent 20 years ridding itself of special purpose hardware for everything, driving toward software solutions. Although, with the advances in programmable hardware it’s possible special purpose hardware is in the realm of possibilities for the large enterprise.

The products/appliances emerging are jumping on the SOA rocket sled, showing how the products could be utilized as an enterprise service bus as well as perimeter security devices. What is not emerging is a well thought out story of how an enterprise, with its vast inventory of overlapping software solutions can best take advantage of the special purpose hardware, how to manage it effectively; and then most importantly, is this technology really a strategic shift, or tactical technology flash?

I plan on diving into the subject to really understand where it plays. There is a steady stream of patents in the pipeline, but so far I find them empty of real innovation. Where is the rest of the industry headed? Is anybody out there having significant success with these products or others? As always your thoughts and comments are welcome.

Best Regards,

Tom

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