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Progress Software pulls together the independent SOA infrastructure industry

The principles of service-oriented architecture (SOA) advocate IT systems that are modular, loosely coupled and integrated using open standards.

Some had hoped that SOA would enable independent software vendors to flourish as the ever present titans of computing would not be able to exploit platform lock-in to stifle competition.

But the SOA arena has in fact been rife with consolidation. Most significantly, software giant Oracle acquired SOA infrastructure and middleware competitor BEA for $7.2 billion in January 2008.

Just weeks after that deal was announced, Irish SOA software vendor IONA Technologies put itself up for sale. And in June 2008, it was announced that application platform software company Progress Software had agreed to buy the company for $162 million.

The deal expands Progress Software’s portfolio of SOA infrastructure, most notably with the Artix registry/repository, which helps organisations document and administer their software services.

Both companies have an enterprise service bus (ESB) product, but Progress argues that IONA’s Artix ESB occupies a different market position from its own Sonic ESB. “Artix is about integrating the end points of the SOA, while Sonic is about the network messaging,” says Giles Nelson, Progress’s EMEA technology director.

Nelson adds that IONA’s strong presence in the financial services and telecommunications industries will boost his company’s standing in those markets.

That Progress is actively seeking to broaden its product range and expand its offering was also underlined by a further acquisition in June 2008, that of SOA governance tool-maker Mindreef.

Another wrinkle to the story is that the IONA deal signifies the end of an era in Ireland’s software industry. Since its inception in 1999 as a campus company at Trinity College Dublin, IONA was a breeding ground for many entrepreneurs who went on to spin off their own companies, mostly specialists in integration and middleware.

Annrai O’Toole, one of IONA’s founders, left in 2002 to set up Cape Clear, an ESB provider that was bought earlier this year by US on-demand application provider Workday.

“I think there must have been something in the water in Dublin in the late 1990s,” notes Progress’s Nelson.

Further reading

Cape Clear buy gives Workday integration on demand On-demand application provider brings "integration-as-a-service" in house

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Consolidating WAN acceleration
WAN optimisation pioneer falls to independent upstart as market attracts heavyweights