Since Cisco Systems acquired Reactivity last year, the XML appliance market, for the most part, has been quiet. But next door, Layer 7 Technologies and Vordel continue to be aggressive players in the XML security gateway area. And they'll need to be tough--the core function of an XML security gateway is an XML firewall, and this is a service that established firewall vendors like Cisco, Juniper Networks, and F5 Networks all believe they're well-positioned to provide.
When we set out late last year to review comprehensive SOA appliances that provide XML security, acceleration, transformation, and parsing, we worried that we wouldn't find all this goodness in one box. We also didn't foresee the speed at which this space would coalesce.
