Don't Count Out BEA Yet

Is BEA in a death spiral? Hardly. Its technology is still solid, and two forthcoming products--Quicksilver and Diamond--could return the company to the front of the pack. Quicksilver, scheduled for test release in January, is intended to be like an Enterprise Service Bus on steroids--think ESB with Web services management and cross-product messaging integration. Diamond, due out in summer 2005, will include Quicksilver, but it's a thorough revision of the WebLogic Platform suite. Planned boosts in performance, management, interoperability, development, reliability and support for a dizzying array of new standards make Diamond sound like a winner.

BEA's knack of being in the sweet spot of IT's "next big thing" makes it too early to count it out.