Whenever an analyst "creates" a new software category, I always wonder how real it is. Enterprise service bus is a prime example. Based on the emergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services, ESBs provide a messaging infrastructure solution for SOAs and, according to some vendors, can be considered an "out-of-the-box" SOA.
We've been down this road with previous messaging approaches, haven't we? Remember enterprise application integration (EAI), message-oriented middleware and object request brokers?
But enterprise service buses (ESBs) are an evolutionary step beyond these. They offer tremendous entry-point value for the initial phases of SOA and Web services with their combination of messaging (synchronous and asynchronous), Web services support, data transformation and intelligent routing.
