I've just finished the REPAMA Segment Analysis Study and Marketing Efficacy Assessment on High Performance Middleware. It's just going through our buddy checking process at the moment so now I can get on with the next project. We're about to start looking at vendors of integration and SOA solutions on the mainframe with the REPAMA methodology.
It's really interesting (well if you're a marketing analyst) when you start a new project. You have to leave a lot of your preconceptions behind. If you're reverse engineering the marketing strategy from a vendor's go to market material, it's quite wrong to form firm opinions about the results before you even start the analysis.
I mean, if I were to ask you who you think would be the typical target organisation and audience for a vendor of mainframe integration and SOA solutions, you might think that they'd be in the picture above.
That said, from the work I've done so far this image couldn't be further from the
truth. The mainframe; the only truly secure and reliable platform for
some organisations, or the incumbent legacy platform that it isn't cost
effective to move away from for other organisations. Either way it's a
bottleneck for truly effective SOA projects.
With so much data of record and critical processes residing on the world's mainframes, an organisation's ability to bring the mainframe into broader integration and SOA projects in as quick, simple and cost effective way will determine the success or otherwise of many broader, non-mainframe SOA projects.
The mainframe is now at the hub of many SOA projects as is the software that makes it possible to securely integrate the mainframe world into "mainstream" enterprise computing.
Anyway the vendors on the long list so far include:
IBM (CICs, IMS, WebSphere, RD for System Z)
DataDirect’s Shadow (Progress Software)
GT Software’s Ivory
SOA Software’s SOLA
Hostbridge
Software AG
Microfocus
Rocket Software
Some of these might not make the cut as we're aiming to look at about 4 of them in total. I'll keep you posted on the early findings over the next couple of weeks.
Dan.
