EmTech India 2009: Second Jotting

Now in continuation of my earlier post, the second awakening is hardware and software merger. The example cited at EmTech was emergence of Java as software though it was though as hardware solution. The example seems to me very convincing. After little thinking the second example I came across, Server virtualization. In this case essentially user is faked for single or multiple machines, which hides the otherwise fact.

With respect to SOA, I also encounter one compelling case: XML Appliance. I understand XML appliances are not pure hardware solutions but combination of hardware and software.

Initially I was skeptical but with some investigation I realized that XML appliances do great job in their niche. They take away mundane job of XML processing and make it many times faster and efficient provided applications have right kind of workload. So do XML Alliances are substitute for:

1. Pure software XML processors?
2. ESB (full or part)?

There is no perfect answer for these questions. Answers depend lot on:

1. Capabilities of XML Appliances
2. Peculiar circumstances surrounding the solution.

Here is the brief list of XML appliances in the market:

1. http://www.castiron.com/
2. Cisco AON
3. http://www.dajeil.com/Default.asp
4. http://www.vordel.com/
5. WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances
6. http://www.vordel.com/
7. Intel SOA Expressway
8. Radware
9. http://www.stampede.com/
10. http://www.prismtech.com/
11. http://www.sonoasystems.com/
12. http://www.layer7tech.com/home.html
13. TIBCO Messaging Appliance


Few blogs and websites discussing XML appliances in SOA ecosystems

1. http://www.nowmagazineblog.blogspot.com/
2. http://soanetworkarchitect.com/
3. http://www.comnews.com/stories/articles/0407/0407xml_appliances.htm
4. http://myarch.com/category/soa
5. http://mkosaraju.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/xml-appliances-and-soa/