Infravio latest SOA player to fall

And then there were none. Two weeks ago, these pages noted the dwindling number of dedicated SOA registry vendors, amid rapid consolidation in the SOA space. BEA had acquired Flashline, which left Infravio as one of the few registry vendors standing. Then, a week ago, Infravio too was snapped up by webMethods for an undisclosed amount.

Free IT resource TechNet: More ways to know it, share it, and keep it running. Sponsored by Microsoft Free IT resource Attend the SOA Executive Forum: Breaking SOA Bottlenecks SOAExecForum.com/may2007 Sponsored by InfoWorld

In the deal, webMethods will gain Infravio’s X-Registry Platform, an advanced registry/repository that emphasizes policy lifecycle management. The capabilities of X-Registry, which also help IT govern the development and runtime interaction of services, should be highly useful to webMethods as it moves more aggressively into the crowded SOA arena.

Consolidation among SOA software providers has been rampant. In January, Mercury bought Systinet. A lesser-known player in the same space, Flashline, was purchased by BEA last month. The remaining pure-play of note is LogicLibrary, whose Logidex registry/repository emphasizes governance of software development assets.

So is it “game over” for smaller SOA players? Not by a long shot, according to Miko Matsumura, vice president of technology standards at Infravio.

Matsumura believes the industry is only in the “third or fourth inning” of the SOA game. “The ‘players’ in this one will be pretty good-sized, so these acquisitions are really players getting suited up for the big game,” he said.