FAQ's on IBM's ESB Products

Q. What is an ESB?
A. An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is a flexible connectivity infrastructure for integrating applications and services. An ESB can power your Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) deployment by reducing the number, size, and complexity of interfaces between your applications and services.

An ESB performs the following:
1: Matches and routes communications between services
2: Converts between different transport protocols
3: Transforms message formats between requestor and service
4: Identifies and distributes business events from disparate sources

An ESB allows your organization to focus on your core business needs rather that the IT Infrastructure required to connect the programs together. An ESB allows you to add new services faster, and make changes to existing services, with little or no impact to existing services.

As ESBs evolve into control and enforcement points for dynamic management, their new benefits include being able to:
1: Add new services both faster, and dynamically, and
2: Invoke alternative services based on real-time needs.

Q. What are the IBM ESB offerings?
A. IBM delivers the most complete IBM ESB solutions ranging from platform-based, platform-neutral and purpose-built hardware.
WebSphere ESB is a platform-based ESB and optimized with WebSphere Application server for an integrated SOA platform.
WebSphere Message Broker is a platform-independent based ESB and is built for universal connectivity and transformation in heterogeneous IT environments.
WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 is an purpose-built hardware ESB and is built for simplified deployment and hardened security.

Q. Why does IBM offer three ESBs?
A. IBM's approach to ESB solutions reflects the realities of evolving IT architectures, which are heterogeneous. One size does NOT fit all when it comes to ESB solutions. Businesses should have the freedom to select ESBs that fit their needs, rather than shoehorn a solution that is not optimal in their environment.

Q. When do I use WebSphere ESB, WebSphere Message Broker or WebSphere DataPower Integration Application XI50?

A. When to Use WebSphere ESB?
1: You use WebSphere Application Server and/or your team has skills with WAS Administration and Java coding or
2: You are now or planning on developing business process using WebSphere Process Server (WebSphere ESB and WPS have common tooling, programming model, and runtime) or
3: You are integrating with ISV business applications hosted on WAS or 3rd party solutions which extend and support WAS or
4: You are mainly focused on standards based interactions using XML, SOAP, Java, JEE, and WS or
5: You want to mediate between Web services and existing systems using JMS, WebSphere MQ, and WebSphere JCA Adapters or
6: Reliability and extensive transactional support are key requirements or
7: You want to minimize your server investment by co-hosting WebSphere services and ESB in one application server.

When to Use WebSphere Message Broker?
1: You are currently using WebSphere Message Broker but would like to extend existing application integration solutions to SOA and related standards or
2: Extend your web services support using WS-Security and WS-Addressing or
3: You have extensive heterogeneous infrastructures, including both standard and non-standards-based applications, protocols, and data formats or
4: You have extensive MQ skills and infrastructure or
5: You are implementing a wide range of advanced messaging and integration patterns including complex event processing or
6: You need extensive pre-built mediation support or
7: You have very complex transformation needs or
8: Reliability and extensive transactional support are key requirements or
9: You have very large files to process or
10: You need the deploy and interact with other ESBs as a remote host or
11: You need to integrate with other applications via the WebSphere Adapters or
12: To achieve very high-performance with horizontal and vertical scaling

When To Use WebSphere DataPower?
1: Ease of use is a primary consideration
2: Simple experience of drop-in installation and admin-based configuration with no or minimal development required or
3: Security, policy and SLA management is required for web services management. Or
4: You are transforming between XML-and-XML or XML-and-any other format
5: Your interaction patterns are relatively simple or
6: You are using XML-based or WS-Security extensively or
7: You require use of advanced Web services standards or
8: You need to minimize message latency when adding an ESB layer or
9: You are doing extensive XML processing combined with high performance requirements
10: Your ESB must be in production very quickly

Q. How do WebSphere ESB, WebSphere Message Broker, and WebSphere DataPower interoperate?
A. IBM's ESB portfolio enables a full range of interoperability scenarios using web services via SOAP/HTTP, JMS, and WebSphere MQ. WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 now have a single tool and security policy description for optimal security requirements. With a simple click within WebSphere Message Broker, WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 will perform WS-Security processing. Applications and message flows will remain unchanged.

Q. What tools do you use with WebSphere Message Broker?
A. WebSphere Message Broker includes the WebSphere Message Broker toolkit which is based on the Rational Software Development Platform which itself is built on Eclipse. The toolkit runs on either Windows or Linux on Intel, and enables the customer to configure the system, develop the message flows and manage deployed environments. The toolkit also provides visibility of adapters (remote or local) in a Broker message flow.

Q. What tools do you use with WebSphere ESB?
A. WebSphere Integration Developer, or WID, is the tool for use with both WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Process Server. WID is designed to be an easy-to-use tool, targeted at the Integration Developer. WID is built on the Rational Software Development Platform which itself is built on Eclipse. WID does not require the user to be a Java developer in order to build and deploy mediations; however it is can be integrated with Rational Application Developer (RAD) for those customers who wish to write their own Java code. Besides WID, other tools available are DataPower tooling, native web UI for administration and configuration of service interactions, WebSphere Transform Extender, XSLT editor, and XSLT maps.

Q. Do I need WebSphere MQ if I have WebSphere Message Broker?
A. Although WebSphere Message Broker is built on top of WebSphere MQ (and is included with Message Broker), WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere MQ address different business needs. WebSphere MQ provides secure and reliable connectivity between application and systems, supported on more than 80 platform configurations. This provides the ability to move data unchanged between virtually all business environments likely to be deployed in a business infrastructure. WebSphere Message Broker is used as a transport for moving data between applications, but it is capable of performing additional tasks through understanding of data formats, allowing it to provide intelligent routing and transformation of XML data formats. Businesses will still see a need for WebSphere MQ to connect up the multiple different environments that make up the typical IT infrastructure deployed around an enterprise, but are likely to see a need for an ESB to add value in environments where it can act on the structured data being exchanged between standards-based applications.

Q. Are JCA Technology Adapters bundled in WebSphere Message Broker?
A. The WebSphere Technology Adapters are a category, not a product. There are several -- JDBC, eMail, TCP/IP, Flat Files, etc. They are contrasted with the WebSphere Application Adapters such as for SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, etc. For WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Process Server, both types of adapters come "bundled" with WebSphere Information Developer. BUT this does not entitle the user to deploy them. The Application Adapters must still be licensed for use. The Technology Adapters, on the other hand, are can be used with WESB/WPS with no license, i.e., the license for their use comes effectively with your license of WESB/WPS. With WebSphere Message Broker 6.1, the Application Adapters are now packaged with the WebSphere Message Broker Toolkit and show up on the palette as Broker nodes. Like WESB/WPS, the customer still requires a license to deploy them. The WebSphere Technology Adapters do not come with WMBT and do not work with WMB, BUT that is OK because WMB comes with a set of nodes (JDBC, File, TCP/IP, eMail, etc) that provide equivalent function and no additional cost is required.

Q. Do I need WebSphere ESB if I already use WebSphere Application Server?
A. Because WebSphere ESB is built on WebSphere Application Server, through their WebSphere ESB license; customers are able to utilize WebSphere Application Server function. In addition, WebSphere ESB also includes additional functions not supplied with WebSphere Application Server (WebSphere Application Server ND edition allows unrestricted use). WebSphere ESB is likely to appeal to many WebSphere Application Server customers who are looking to integrate applications running in their enterprise, who do not want to implement the integration required to link the applications by coding bespoke application logic, either within the application programs themselves or by coding additional adapter logic. WebSphere ESB will allow the integration of applications with minimal programming, with the integration logic being performed on the data 'in-flight' between applications.

Q. If WebSphere Process Server is powered by ESB technologies; do I need to buy WebSphere ESB as well?
A. WebSphere Process Server is powered by the same technology available with WebSphere ESB. This capability is part of the underlying functionality of WebSphere Process Server and no additional license for WebSphere ESB is required for WebSphere Process Server to take advantage of these capabilities. However customers may choose to deploy additional standalone licenses of WebSphere ESB around their enterprise to extend the connectivity reach of the process integration solutions powered by WebSphere Process Server. For example, WebSphere ESB could be installed closer to an SAP application to host a WebSphere Adapter for SAP and to transform SAP messages before sending that information across the network to a business process choreographed by WebSphere Process Server.