Which ESB?
Hello
Could you please help me. I'm trying to evaluate a suitable ESB (JSR 208) solution for my employer. I would like to have some feedback on where I'm headed with this.
Being that I have very little knowledge in how to do my own ESB, my first option is not to reinvent a wheel, and to go with a prepackaged solution.
There appears to be two main contenders here: OpenESB and SeeBeyond - both appear to be offered by Sun (which is a bit confusing in itself), although OpenESB appears to be more open than SeeBeyond.
SeeBeyond appears to be slicker, and one gets the impression by this slickness that it is generally a better offering. I know well that that is just an impression.
Conversely, with SeeBeyond, one also gets the impression that Sun keeps the developer, and therefore the organisation who decides to go with it at ams length from the implementation while in OpenESB, active participation in code base maintainance is encouraged.
I'm leaning to OpenESB for this reason: While I currently know very little of how it is implemented, I will learn and believe in time that I would be able to participate in a more active sense where I feel I have something to offer.
On the other hand, though I think I will have to say to management that the ongoing support cost will be higher, I will be able to get an ESB going quicker if I use SeeBeyond.
The Glassfish project does not seem to say anything about which ESB is better. It doesn't even have a component that addresses JSR 208 in its list of components. Therefore, I would like to hear from people who have had to make a similar decision, what they figured was important to them in making their decision, and what decision they actually made.
Thank you for you time,
Owen.
# 1
If you can also provide more information on what you want to acheive, I am sure it will help people who would like to respond to your question. Maybe some brief use cases or usage patterns will help answer better.
just fyi, glassfish project and the JSR 208 implementation fit in seamlessly and work fine. Infact if you install the glass fish latest build you will see the JBI (JSR 208) as part of it. We have been using/testing this combination (along with the Netbeans enterprise pack) all well integrated for quite some time now.
# 2
Thanks Kiran for your quick response.
As for use cases/usage patterns... their less well defined than the choice of ESB at the moment. It's the same old same old... my employer would like better to integrate their apps so they can respond quicker to marketplace changes etc. Having been employed to find them a solution, I have taken a well trodden journey through SOA, ESB, JBI, and have arrived at a fork in the road about which JBI ESB solution to go with.
I believe we have the same questions that anyone who has reached this far in their journey usually has: What middleware solution is going to balance speed of delivery on an SOA, and is going to be most cost-effective? Which solution is not going to bog us down in implementation details, yet on the other hand, isn't going to lock us in to a nutritional dependence on paying for a contract with a third party for support over trivial matters.
I'm sorry I can't be any more clearer than that at the moment. We are still in a proof-of-concept stage, but what I want to avoid is going with a product that doesn't give my employer the best solution. I am the one and only developer employed here to make this decision, so I want to make it relatively early in the cycle. I don't have time to try and implement a proof-of-concept over different ESB's. I'll make a choice now, and stick with it.
Therefore, I'm looking for experiences from other people on what has worked with them.
Thanks,
Owen.
# 3
To clarify, Java CAPS (you are referring to SeeBeyond) is not a JBI based implementation. Open ESB is the product line that is built on JBI platform.
I think your choice depends on what your needs are. Java CAPS is one of Sun's most poular, successful product suite. It is a stable integration platform that has a large list of connectors to exteranal systems. Java CAPS is a supported platform from Sun. What I mean by supported platform is, when customers have issues with the product Sun has support workforce to help customers resolve the issues.
Whereas OpenESB is a new initiative from Sun to offer our customers and community another flavor of integration based on JBI platform. As of today OpenESB is not a supported offering. However we do plan to extend support for OpenESB in the near future. Please keep track of the activities on our forums for updated message.
Meanwhile we do encourage our community members to try the product and get familiar with the technology.
It is not true that Sun has neglected OpenESB. OpneESB is our new initiative and we are very much committed to its development as much as we are committed to Java CAPS.
# 4
I see few references to CAPS 6 on some of the open-esb
component wiki sites (see
http://www.glassfishwiki.org/jbiwiki/Wiki.jsp?
page=ETLWishList for example)
Is JCAPS being modified to be a JBI based implementation.?
Would JCAPS 6 be a JBI based implementation ?
# 5
I don't what to put words in other's mouths, but as I understand, SeeBeyond is not a JBI-based product. Possibly others can offer further information there.
I have been led to believe that OpenESB is the Sun's sole JBI implementation, and that Sun will consolidate a support infrastructure around OpenESB in the near future.
I am a member of the following two mailing lists for OpenESB to which I received information that drew me to this conclusion:
dev@open-esb.dev.java.net
users@open-esb.dev.java.net
You can subscribe to these lists by going to https://open-esb.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectMailingListList and joining the OpenESB community.
Owen.
