Red Hat Makes SOA Buy

Open-source software specialist Red Hat is looking to boost its storage and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) stories by snapping up middleware vendor JBoss for $350 million today. (See Red Hat Acquires JBoss.)

Red Hat, which got its hands on Global File System (GFS) technology for clustered storage when it acquired Sistina Software back in 2003, is now looking to add SOAs to the mix. (See Red Hat Acquires Sistina, Red Hat Expands Support , and Polycom Dons Red Hat.) The JBoss Application Server software can be used to deploy Web- and Java-based applications as services in an SOA.

SOAs treat applications software as a collection of autonomous, reusable business services, enabling users to run these applications across different platforms. As the technology gains momentum, a number of vendors are currently jostling for position in an attempt to win the SOA dime. (See BEA Buys SOA Startup and HP Extends SOA Portfolio.)

Speaking on a conference call this morning, Red Hat execs confirmed that JBoss's technology will feed into all aspects of their business, although they did not go into specifics. "The market is demanding an integrated set of open-source solutions," explained Matthew Szulik, the Red Hat CEO. "Our customers are increasingly looking to leverage low-cost, grid-like infrastructures."

Curtis Gittens, senior analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, calls this a shrewd move on the part of Red Hat. Deploying JBoss Application Server on top of GFS, he told Byte and Switch, lets users run multiple queries on their clustered storage and then feed the results into their SOAs.