The power of specialized vendor of SOA infrastructure software

One of these days I was talking with a customer about his SOA project.

He is selecting tools to SOA governance and security.

There are two majors software vendors with which he usually does business.

These vendors are among the top five, so they are really big.

Both responded to the RFP with products of others. They said there are tools in their suites that addresses these needs, but they recognize there are solutions more complete for governance and security. They recommended products from Systinet, Layer 7 and SOA Software.

It is interesting to notice that major vendors are recommending more specialized softwares from small vendors. These small vendor are focused in some niches and are developing more value-added products.

However, this situation is not the ideal. It requires that the customers deal with several vendors, talking with each one about license, support and product evolution roadmap.

I wonder if the major vendors will offer a really complete SOA suite or the specialized vendors will remain dominating their niches.