Appliances or Software-based ESBs? The Million Dollar Question

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Dain Hansen's Blog | April 4, 2008  11:23 AM | Comments (0)

Take a look at this article on SOA World Magazine by Shiva Bhajekar: Appliances or Software Based ESBs: The Million Dollar Question

Talks about some of the most important questions that Enterprise Architects have been wrestling with:

• When should you look at appliances or software ESBs?
• What are the differences?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Do I need both?
• And if I implement both is there a recommended architecture for that?

“You may start with the software ESB when service brokering and integration is the primary driving factor for a project, especially when services use is internal within an organization. For a smaller deployment in an organizational unit, it is possible to stick with just a software ESB, with the more traditional network firewalls providing the missing gatekeeping functions.

Start with the hardware appliance when perimeter security is a concern, the service consumers are in the extranet or a different organization, and the services have already been enabled for reuse. For small organizations where integration needs are very simple, it might suffice for service brokering as well. Ultimately the lack of the appliance's flexibility and an inability to support complex integration patterns will result in experiencing the need for a software ESB.”

Below is an except of the Reference Architecture to help you if you are leveraging both. This relates back to our SOA Integration blueprint we talked about in an article we published last week.

Questions or comments on the article? We’d love to hear your feedback!

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