Windows Into a Parallel SOA Universe

NATURAL MONOPOLY

The most ambitious part of Microsoft's SOA strategy is BizTalk Services, which it calls an ISB, or Internet service bus. Microsoft claims that BizTalk Services will be a true standards-based ESB, able to perform all the same functions as an ESB that an enterprise hosts in-house and therefore competing with them. Like Oslo, BizTalk Services hasn't shipped yet and doesn't yet have a firm availability date, but it's more real. Customers can already test it online (at labs.biztalk .net), along with some sample services designed to use it.

Microsoft's plan is to roll out the ISB in two steps, aimed at two disparate markets. Its first targets are organizations that need to integrate applications with business partners or other third parties but are put off by the complexity. The theory is that instead of dealing with multiple Web services connecting to multiple different networks, enterprises will need to connect to just one: Microsoft.

Of course, this only works if all the organizations you need to connect with are also Microsoft customers. Ultimately, Microsoft sees itself becoming a central hub for interenterprise Web services, something that not every organization will be comfortable with. For integration to be seamless, Microsoft also will need to host identity services for all participants. These, too, are already in test form, looking a lot like a business version of Microsoft's Passport plan.

Microsoft describes the second step as taking the ESB down-market, opening SOA and BPM to companies that can't yet justify the expense of an ESB. Its pitch here is similar to those of other software-as-a-service providers.

The second step is where Redmond is likely to face the strongest competition--not just from other SaaS vendors but from conventional SOA and application platform players. With ESBs rapidly becoming commoditized and open source versions available from Red Hat, MuleSource, and the Sun-backed OpenESB, it may be too late. The main competitor in the business of selling SOA as a service is Salesforce.com, though its plans seem no more advanced than Microsoft's and it's even less associated with SOA.

In an unusual move for a SaaS provider, Microsoft also will offer all components of BizTalk Services as software that enterprises can install on their own servers. It says it may also use the platform as a way to offer other services, though the company wouldn't give many details. The first is likely to be the aforementioned identity service.

This "software plus services" concept is obviously good for Microsoft: It gives the company two revenue streams and, perhaps more important, lets it leverage its dominance in desktop software into the services world. But it may not be so good for customers. A major selling point of SaaS is that it doesn't need locally installed software. While nearly everyone has Windows and Office on the desktop already, tying a service too closely to Windows Server products is unlikely to bring as many benefits.

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