Microsoft Biztalk vs. Apache ServiceMix

Over the last few weeks I’ve been evaluating Apache ServiceMix Enterprise Service Bus. I wanted to find out whether it is suitable for production and which features it offers. Compared to commercial products like Biztalk Server it is limited in functionality but nevertheless it is quite useful and works well.
If you are looking for an Open Source alternative to Biztalk Server ServiceMix might be an option. Below you’ll find a brief comparision of the feature set of Biztalk and ServiceMix. If you need more information feel free to contact me.

esb1 (10k image)
esb2 (8k image)

XML/XSL Tools

I’m currently investigating some open source ESB products. I’m am trying to find out whether they are mature enough for production use. Especially ServiceMix is very promising.
In order to develop a new EAI or BPM application it’s also important to have some tools at hand which make developers life a bit easier. Two or them are:

1. XML Schema generator

Trang let’s you generate XML Schemas from XML documents without installing a heavyweight development tool. Just type in:

java -jar trang.jar order.xml order_schema.xsd

2. XSLT Mapper

Jamper let’s you create XSLT-Mappings with a drag and drop GUI like in Biztalk or Aqualogic. It’s a bit rudimentary but much better than using notepad or vi.

jamper (44k image)

BizTalk Server an ESB?

During my Biztalk Server training I have been asked several times whether Biztalk is an ESB or not.
Especially in the Java technology domain ESB is becoming more and more popular. For example recently BEA released Aqualogic Service Bus.
I always said that Biztalk has all the features that you would expect from an ESB like routing and mediation.
I it’s interview Is BizTalk Server an ESB? on DNJ Online Matt Nicholson discussed this questions with Scott Woodgate from the Biztalk Server Team.
As Scott said Biztalk is not just an ESB. With it’s additional features like Business Process Management or Business Activity Monitoring, just to name a few, in combination with arbitrary service hosts it poses an ideal platform for SOA applications.

SOA Maturity Model

Quote taken from the website:

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has emerged as the most significant shift in how business applications are designed, developed and implemented in the last 10 years, eclipsing the shift to client-server. In fact, Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2008, “SOA will provide the basis for 80 percent of new development projects.”

While IT is quick to embrace the technical value of service-oriented design, development and implementation, IT executives face the very different challenge of accurately managing the investment in technology as it relates to business value. These IT managers and decision makers need help and guidance in communicating the business value of their SOA vision and to be able to benchmark their SOA adoption within the organization.

To address this challenge, Sonic Software and its partners AmberPoint, BearingPoint and Systinet have jointly developed A New SOA Maturity Model (SOA MM). The model is designed to show the increasingly positive impact of SOA adoption from a business benefits perspective. It provides IT decision makers with simple framework for benchmarking the strategic value of their SOA implementation, and a model for visualizing future success.

For me the SOA maturity model is very useful in order to discuss the SOA strategy for a company. The Quick Reference visualizes different maturity levels and helps the company to get an idea where they are standing.

Schizophrenic Attitude Amongst The Java Community

In the early days of Java a strong argument used by the proponents of the technology was standards compliance. Later on the community realized that the standardized technologies were not enough to meet common project requirements or the way they worked was not the most elegant.
That’s why frameworks like Struts or Spring appeared. Nowadays standards seem to be a kind of unneccessary luxury.
But they are not! Java standards allow to avoid the vendor lock-in that people were always complaining about especially in terms of Microsoft technologies. But in the context of open source this seems to be forgotten. A lot of developers a willing to use every cool non standardized open source framework that appears never asking whether it’s standard compliant or not. Examples are Struts, Spring, Beehive, etc.
I think as long as no standardized technology is available which meets certain requirements it’s perfectly fine to use non standardized technology. At least if it has a sound background for instance by a large vendor or large independent developer community.
I know there are other factors like existing codebase which might influence a technology decision.
But if one has to choose between standardized and non standardized software the choice should be clear.

What is your choice?

EJB3 or Spring?
Classic J2EE or Beehive?
JSF or Struts?

The Future of BEA Weblogic Workshop

BEA recently introduced it’s new Eclipse-based development environment after an acquisition of M7.
This immediately raises questions about the future of the BEA Weblogic Workshop 8.1 product which by now was the development environment from BEA. The BEA Workshop Studio 3.0 FAQ elucidates the subject.

Quote from the FAQ:
“There will initially be two developer tool products, the BEA Workshop Studio 3.0 and the WebLogic Workshop 8.1 IDE. BEA had previously announced that the next generation of the BEA WebLogic Workshop