SOA Software launches Workbench governance solution

Pure-play vendors of SOA governance solutions have been dropping like flies: Infravio was bought by webMethods, and Systinet by Mercury Interactive (which was then swallowed by HP). Yet SOA Software, one of the few remaining independents, continues to bulk up.

The company on Monday unveiled a new SOA governance product dubbed Workbench, seven months after the acquisition of services networking vendor Blue Titan.

Like the SOA governance products that Infravio, Systinet, and IBM developed, Workbench combines a UDDI v3 registry for publishing services with a repository for service metadata, along with tools to assist in the development and maintenance of design-time and runtime policies.

The difference, according to VP of product marketing Ian Goldsmith, is that Workbench is available in two configurations: a standalone a registry/repository, and integrated with SOA’s Service Manager for a “closed-loop SOA infrastructure,”

Normally, runtime policies in a repository have little or no connection with the rules implemented in a service management product, where the rubber meets the road for security details and service levels. Goldsmith said competitors ask IT to hope policies are being enforced, and “’hope’ is a very bad word in governance.”

In contrast, Workbench can push policies out to service endpoints and audit runtime policy enforcement from a central location. For now, the closed-loop functionality is available only between the two SOA Software products. Existing standards don’t support integration across platforms.