TIBCO Adopts Use Case Bundles with ActiveMatrix 2.0

| Feb 13, 2008 | Application Infrastructure | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Brad Shimmin

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Very High
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

February 11, 2008 -- TIBCO Software announced the general availability of TIBCO ActiveMatrix 2.0, featuring expanded capabilities for integration, composite application development, and governance under a single platform to better manage heterogeneous service-oriented architectures (SOAs). All ActiveMatrix 2.0 products can be purchased separately or as part of three packages (i.e., the TIBCO SOA Starter Bundle, the TIBCO Integration Bundle, or the TIBCO Composite Application Bundle), which are all designed to simplify investment and deployment during any phase of an organization's SOA lifecycle.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on TIBCO’s release of ActiveMatrix 2.0, because this marks the first major update to the firm’s key service-oriented architecture (SOA) development, deployment, management, and governance platform. As such, this release significantly strengthened ActiveMatrix as a managed service platform for heterogeneous SOA through a number of improvements, including the adoption of use case-based product bundles, an entry-level enterprise service bus (ESB) solution, and improved .NET and Java integration capabilities.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to TIBCO, as the firm needed to further ActiveMatrix’s ability to both integrate with and leverage the firm’s portfolio of SOA products. Already, TIBCO had updated its iProcess Suite to work more closely with the ActiveMatrix platform. With this release, TIBCO has continued this momentum, closely tying its integration solution (BusinessWorks) to form a more unified platform that can shorten deployment times and improve productivity at runtime with features like a complete view of all service dependencies and performance profiles.

• Market Impact: High on the SOA market in general, as enterprise firms now demand an application architecture that is both tolerant of heterogeneity and capable of servicing the entire lifecycle. TIBCO’s continued technological investment in ActiveMatrix positions the firm positively relative to independent SOA platform rivals Sun, BEA (pending acquisition by Oracle), IONA, Software AG, and Red Hat in terms of leveraging the service component architecture (SCA) standard to provide lifecycle visibility across both Java and .NET environments.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• All rival vendors should position ActiveMatrix 2.0 as an interim release rather than a major update. Certainly, version 2.0 moves TIBCO’s overall SOA vision forward with new entry points for customers, new interoperability with TIBCO products and improved Java/.Net capabilities via SCA support. However, ActiveMatrix, as defined by TIBCO, is still an evolving solution with a number of dependencies (both internally and externally) that have prevented the firm from reaching its stated vision more quickly.

• Rival SOA platform providers (including Oracle/BEA, Microsoft, IBM, and Sun) should productize use case-based solutions targeting specific customer entry points. This approach has already been adopted successfully by IBM (with its Portal products) and Software AG, IONA, and Progress Software (with their governance solutions) and represents a quick methodology for reaching new customers. Entry points of interest include governance, integration, high availability, security, and compliance.

• Rival SOA firms with strong event processing solutions (primarily Oracle/BEA and Progress Software) should seek out compatibility with leading server virtualization technologies and solutions from XenSource, VMware, HP, and Microsoft. As mentioned above, a converged virtualization and SOA-based business process optimization (BPO) for both service and server provisioning will soon become a necessity among larger customers steeped in SOA.

• Rival vendors with strong ESB/application server solutions (IONA, Sun, IBM, and Oracle/BEA) should consider building governance into these foundational solutions not as pre-configured add-ons but as intrinsic components, beginning with policy-driven integration and orchestration routines.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Potential ActiveMatrix customers should welcome TIBCO’s 2.0 release, because it introduces very flexible and pragmatic purchase options. Though the firm has introduced a number of specific product bundles (such as the SOA Starter Kit), customers can actually mix and match ActiveMatrix products using an a la carte approach, creating their own bundle.

• Potential customers with heterogeneous SOA installations supporting multiple registry/repository solutions should actively explore ActiveMatrix 2.0, as the product can mediate between disparate systems. Customers can simply browse a registry or onramp that entire registry into ActiveMatrix and then chose to enforce policies against those select or imported services.

• Existing BusinessWorks 5.6 customers should consider purchasing or upgrading to ActiveMatrix 2.0, redeploying BusinessWorks applications to the ActiveMatrix container. Customers can then employ embedded policy management routines.

• Potential customers with substantial investments in Java EE should note that TIBCO has committed to supporting this platform. Once completed, TIBCO will offer what is perhaps the most interoperable SOA framework with one-box support for Java, Java EE, .NET, POJO, CRL, and JVM applications.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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