the application delivery network

Forum Systems announced today that it had been issued a patent on “XML Security Functionality.”

XML Gateway Patent Issued: Forum Systems has been issued an industry-first Patent 7,516,333 for its XML Security Gateway, Forum Sentry. The patent covers XML Security policy enforcement deployed as a Network Appliance. Forum is thrilled to have gained protection for its intellectual property and believes that this patent has far reaching implication within the XML Security Gateway market. For details about the patent, please click here or visit www.uspto.gov.

The official word from Forum Systems indicates that the patent “provides broad coverage for XML Security functions such as XML-encryption, XML-decryption and XML-signatures as well as general security policy enforcement using a network appliance.”

This potentially affects, well, application delivery vendors as well as the “usual suspects” in the XML/SOA gateway space. Vendors in the ADC space who may be affected:

F5 Networks
Cisco (via its Reactivity acquisition)
Citrix

Additionally, IBM DataPower, Vordel, Layer 7 Technologies, and Intel may be affected by the issuance of this patent.

Of course this could engender arguments over the definition of “network appliance.” Architecturally there is no difference between a “network appliance” and a “network device” but there are differences in technology that could allow one to argue for a while about whether such devices were covered under the term “appliance”. Having been in technology for a while, these types of arguments are usually good for prolonging the inevitable but are sometimes actually successful. In the meantime, they’re just good fun if you like arguing the finer points of anything.

Given the reach and broad nature of the patent, flagging Forum Systems (recently acquired by its own spin off, Crosscheck Networks) is likely looking to the patent as a revenue stream to bolster its bottom line by collecting royalties from companies “in violation” of their newly issued patent.

Technorati Tags: MacVittie,Forum Systems,F5,Cisco,DataPower,Vordel,Layer 7 Technologies,Intel,patent,XML,SOA,gateway,security

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The cloud community knew Cassatt was struggling and “near its end” but its acquisition by CA is somewhat of a surprise – as well as a delight.

CA’s Chief Architect, Donald Ferguson, lays it all out on the table nicely:

“Cassatt invented an elegant and innovative architecture and algorithms for data center performance optimization,” said Donald Ferguson, CA’s Chief Architect. “Incorporating Cassatt’s analysis and optimization capabilities into CA’s world-class business-driven automation solution will enable cloud-style computing to reliably drive efficiencies in both on-premises, private data centers and off-premises, utility data centers. We believe the result will be a uniquely comprehensive infrastructure management approach, spanning monitoring, analysis, planning, optimization and execution.”

Exactly. The need for integration of cloud/virtual automation and provisioning as well as optimization into larger network management (data center) systems like those from CA (as well as HP, IBM, and BMC) is necessary in order for “private” cloud computing to come to fruition. Without this kind of broader, integrated management systems it is unlikely that the benefits of Infrastructure 2.0 will be realized by enterprises without moving wholly to a cloud computing provider’s offering.

It will be interesting to see how quickly CA can leverage this acquisition, and whether or not it can raise awareness of CA in general in the cloud computing/virtualization arena as the management giant is rarely mentioned in those circles.

Too, CA’s offerings around BPM (Business Process Management) are rarely discussed but may play well into a larger strategy around data center orchestration as it begins to bring the business need for agility and automation into the picture.

This acquisition will likely not be viewed by many as significant, and that speaks of a sad state of understanding of what it’s going to take for cloud computing in the enterprise data center to be successful and bring the benefits promised of this emerging technology.

Full text of the press release announcing the acquisition can be found here.

Technorati Tags: MacVittie,CA,Cassatt,acquisition,BPM,orchestration,infrastructure 2.0,dynamic infrastructure,data center,management,cloud computing,virtualization

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In what is certainly a somewhat odd turn of events, Crosscheck Networks announced today that it had acquired Forum Systems.

Crosscheck, focused on SOA/XML testing and validation, was loosely spun out of Forum Systems years ago and headed up by Mamoon Yunus, who was also in charge of Forum Systems after long time CEO Wes Swenson was displaced when the SOA governance vendor had fallen on rough financial times.

Forum’s web site already reflects the change in management and no longer lists a separate management structure, which is interesting only because of the double-duty of management between Forum and Crosscheck.

The acquisition builds on an existing integration partnership between the two industry leaders. Mamoon Yunus, who served as Forum Systems president and chief technology officer at the time of the acquisition, will lead Crosscheck Networks as president and CEO. Forum Systems will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and will be led by Vice President of Operations, Rizwan Mallal.

The re-integration of a spin-off is not unheard of; Cisco, Intel, and a wide variety of technology companies have followed the path of spinning off some venture and “re-acquiring” when it becomes evident the spin-off will be at least marginally successful.

But it is rare and odd that the spin-off acquire the parent.

Through the acquisition, Crosscheck Networks’ enterprise-class suite now includes the following products that can be deployed together or seamlessly integrated with what organizations are already using:

SOAPSimulator - An affordable, easy-to-configure, comprehensive service simulation product for developers and testers, SOAPSimulator enables Web services to significantly reduce project expense and duration by allowing parallel development of the client and service components of a SOAP- or XML-based Web service.

SOAPSonar - Providing simple, intuitive and comprehensive testing for SOAP-, XML- and REST-based services, the SOAPSonar testing framework is easy to deploy and provides testing modes for functional, performance, compliance and security testing.

Forum Sentry - Simplifying business communications through secure integration across networks and business boundaries, the FIPS- and DoD-certified Sentry XML Gateway ensures preemptive risk mitigation of business transactions exposed via Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) by enabling the ability to develop and deploy robust and reliable SOAP- and XML-based Web services.

One can see what should become an integration similar to that between WhiteHat Security and F5 Networks: a virtual patching solution focused on XML/SOA web services. That would be awesome given that if web application security policies are complex then XMLL/SOA security policies are double-plus complex. Anything that simplifies and improves time to deploy such policies can only be a good thing.

The full text of the press release can be found here.

Technorati Tags: MacVittie,Forum Systems,Crosscheck Networks,SOA,XML,security,governance,WhiteHat Security,F5 Networks,acquisition

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Forum Systems Patent Cuts Across Markets

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CROSSCHECK NETWORKS EATS FORUM SYSTEMS