Enterprise Service Bus switches into drive as markets reach $190M-plus

The need to develop closer links with customers and suppliers is driving demand for Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) technologies.

An ESB is a platform for creating composite applications, which are bits of functionality pulled from multiple systems and melded together to execute a specific set of tasks.

In addition to supporting Internet-based business processes, which often require cross-company system links, ESB technology is proving useful in the enterprise application integration projects that often accompany corporate mergers and reorganizations. According to a recent report from Dublin-based Research and Markets, ESB markets reported at $190.5 million in 2006 are expected to reach $494.4 million by 2013. Growth will come largely due to the flexible IT architecture that is needed to respond to market shifts brought by faster product cycles and other competitive challenges.

IBM reportedly has implemented 1,800 ESB projects—many of them trial installations. Other ESB vendors include Click Commerce, Sonic Software, and Capeclear.

ESB technology is often at the center of business process management (BPM) software suites. BPM vendors claim these solutions can take the islands of knowledge, data, and business rules involved in executing core enterprise activities and unite them into a single system that is easily accessible—and useful—to business people.

As the ESB market unfolds, vendors are infusing the technology into enterprise and supply chain applications. In particular, extranet business software supplier Click Commerce's Enterprise Service Bus recently was named a finalist in the Software & Information Industry Association's Codie Awards, and in the Best Web Services Solution category.

Click's ESB provides a flexible framework for creating composite applications. The framework leverages Web services and Business Process Execution Language, or BPEL, to orchestrate the flow of information between Click Commerce applications.

The first composite application using Click Commerce ESB is Click Commerce Service Supply Chain Solution, with warehouse management, returns management, supply chain execution, and service-parts optimization software.