A Generic Service Model
In general, an SOA that utilize an ESB exposes a service as a proxy. As Figure 1 illustrates, communication from the client to the ESB or ESB to the business service can be over HTTP, JMS, SMTP, or FTP.
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Figure 1: ESB communication.
Vendor Selection Process
One way to determine which vendor(s) are appropriate for your organization is to know your Web services "system" Use Cases, such as:
- The need for disparate data integration. Try Oracle Fusion Middleware, IBM Websphere ESB.
- A high-performance, guaranteed delivery message integration backbone. See Tibco BusinessWorks, WebMethods Fabric, Sun/SeeBeyond, IBM Websphere, BEA AquaLogic.
- A secure SOA infrastructure, including service monitoring, hub integration and business process reuse. Check out IBM Websphere and Tivoli, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Tibco Business Works, BEA AquaLogic.
- A low-end, no-coding, configuration environment, an alternative to the custom, homegrown solution. See Sonic, Fiorano, Cape Clear.
- A network services gateway for B2B, process orchestration and protocol brokering. Try IBM, Tibco, WebMethods, BEA.
