On the software side are Vordel and Xtradyne Technologies. Xtradyne sells only software, intended to be deployed on a customer's own blade server with an optional SSL accelerator card. Vordel gives customers a choice of software or appliance. The advantage of pure software is that it can more easily be adapted to support non-XML services, and in smaller networks can share physical hardware with other SOA components.
Vordel also offers its product as a virtual appliance for use with VMware. The overhead of virtualization means that it's still used more for development and testing than actual deployment, but that will likely change in the future. With AMD and Intel working to diminish the performance penalty, virtualization can help the SOA infrastructure itself become agile, dedicating hardware to functionality such as encryption only when needed.
On the hardware side are DataPower, Layer 7 Technologies and Reactivity, all of which use XML-acceleration ASICs. DataPower and Reactivity had already expanded into the SOA management space when they were acquired by Cisco and IBM, respectively. Layer 7 isn't active in the full SOA-management sphere but goes beyond pure security with a range of appliances for use within a SOA.
Intel is working to close the speed advantage ASICs give over software, in part using software it acquired with appliance vendor Sarvega in 2005. And the PC-based appliances from Xtradyne or Vordel also provide a performance boost, thanks simply to giving the software its own dedicated server.
Whereas Cisco and Layer 7 both use ASICs from Tarari, DataPower made its own, giving IBM what seems a potentially powerful edge in XML processing. It also has a full suite of software that can run on the DataPower hardware, making WebSphere appliances a strong possibility for a future product. The most likely candidate to be released as an appliance is the application server itself, followed perhaps by the ESB and other SOA infrastructure.
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