Another option is to run multiple ESBs, pushing integration up to another layer, usually BPM (Business Process Management), which differs from service orchestration in that it tries to manage tasks involving people, not just automated services. TIBCO Software and Vitria Technology are promoting this model, claiming to work with other vendors' ESBs in addition to their own. However, much of an ESB's value lies in reusing "componetized" services, an advantage lost if services cannot easily be orchestrated into a composite app.
Orchestration originally required proprietary languages, but most vendors have coalesced around WS-BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). Version 1.1, while widely adopted, contains so many options that composite apps were not easily portable among ESBs. BPEL 2.0 has less room for interpretation--and so is necessarily not backward-compatible--but still allows for extensions. This lets it support every feature of any service through any ESB, but means that many composite applications will need to be rewritten if moved from one ESB to another.
Note that not all BPEL extensions are proprietary. IBM and SAP are working on BPEL4People, for example, a proposed standard that will extend it to human interaction, essentially merging service orchestration with BPM (see our take on BPEL4People).
Application platforms are also beginning to use ESB principles internally. Both Microsoft's WCF (Windows Communications Framework) and the Java community's SCA (Service Component Architecture) are attempts to redesign development platforms into small SOAs, with services built from reusable components that interact through standardized interfaces. These treat BPEL as just another programming language and ensure that apps are service-enabled, making an ESB less necessary.
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