SOAPStation Clears the Way For Dynamic Web Services

Without a Web services management tool, service-oriented architectures don't necessarily prevent downtime or system failures in enterprise networks. In fact, unexpected or random application failures are more likely to occur in today's highly interdependent enterprise systems.

Also, solution providers shouldn't expect to get useful results simply by monitoring applications and servers. If, for example, an e-commerce application begins to slow down because of an unexpected load increase, it can start a ripple effect of random failures of any applications dependent on its data. As administrators begin to pinpoint where a failure occurred, data almost always becomes the key factor to solving the problem. Unfortunately, application boundaries are never monitored, so most unforeseen events in a network end up costing companies countless man-hours debugging systems.

Actional provides realtime views of multiple service-related activities, including data throughput, process time and fault rates, thereby catching problems before they become unmanageable.

At the same time, the suite's Looking Glass console manages performance statistics by collecting data from agents that reside in every network node. Audits collected by Looking Glass can help administrators plan network loads and establish service-level agreements (SLAs). Looking Glass also can reveal any interdependencies among applications and can drill all the way down to an individual service or routing process in an application.

The detail of information gathered means that root causes of a system failure or slowdown can be traced and identified easily. Looking Glass provides various thresholds that can give early warnings of system problems. The software can be put in place at the service, node and application levels.

Once problems are discovered, the software allows policies to be easily set. Actional has patented how the service loads are identified and accessed using the Looking Glass tool. All of the services are controlled by policies that are process- and application-neutral, and each policy consists of a set of rules that target an individual service or its operational components.

Because policies are neutral, generic SLAs can be deployed throughout a system. For example, a transactional SLA can be applied to any operation that requires transactions, regardless of specific services that are used by each process.

The tools of the Actional suite are managed by an easy-to-use interface. A three-step wizard walks solution providers through a complete setup of Web services for all of the suite's features. CRN Test Center engineers found that the wizard was easy to navigate, and its help files provided clear and concise explanations of each function.

SOAPstation's unique architecture allows each component of a service to be altered at any point. An XSLT transformation, for instance, can be changed after an access point enters the server or before a managed service collects it. What's more, any transformation rule that modifies any element within the XSLT file before or after an operation or a conditional expression can be introduced easily. SOAPstation spreads the conversion and monitoring process, showing routing and access rules, XSLT interceptors and SLA monitors functioning as separate elements.

Actional defines interceptors as any arbitrary set of conditions that can be introduced in an XLST file or a Web service to help create custom transformations. CRN Test Center engineers found that the interceptor feature is extremely useful whenever ad hoc conversions are required.

The SOAPstation server excels in versioning, XML transformations and routing of managed services. The versioning mechanism performed flawlessly in two tests using Google's search service. In the SOAPstation server, multiple service versions can be introduced without interfering with older versions. That can be accomplished using multiple routing conditions targeted at each service. The server uses conditions such as XPATH, URL parameters, SOAP envelopes, custom code and other reusable conditions.

Also, rollbacks to previous versions of Web services are possible with the click of a button, even in production systems. That feature was inconceivable a few years ago in older systems that used other distributed application protocols.

The SOAPstation server offers UDDI, SMTP, certificates and several other configuration options that are critical for managing services.

CHANNEL PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS

>ACTIONAL SOAPSTATION AND LOOKING GLASS
PRICE: $SOAPstation: $50,000 per CPU; Looking Glass: $75,000 per server
MARGIN: 20 percent
DISTRIBUTORS: Direct from vendor
TECH RATING:

CHANNEL RATING:

CHANNEL OVERVIEW: Mountain View, Calif.-based Actional provides technical and sales training either on-site or online, integration assistance and pre- and post-sales support via dedicated account managers and technical contacts. Numerous sales and technical resources are available online. Technical expertise and specific domain experience are required for authorization.

Note: Vendors can earn up to five stars for technical merit and five for their channel program. If the average of these two scores is four stars or greater, the product earns CRN Test Center Recommended status.