Product Announcement: Forum Vantage

So up until recently there's really only been one external hardware solution for speeding up XML parsing/XSLT processing: DataPower's XA35. Yes, the mean, green XSLT machine. With IBM's recent acquisition of DataPower there's a hole in the market for this type of technology. Not that IBM/DataPower isn't selling the XA35, but the WebSphere division isn't as good at pushing hardware as it is software and there's quite a few folks who don't want to buy Blue. Yeah, imagine that. Enter Forum Systems Vantage. A new offering from the security-focused Forum Systems, the Vantage line is a direct competitor to DataPower's XA35 and focuses on accelerating XML parsing/XSLT processing using its customized hardware/software XML parsing and acceleration technologies.

Forum has been a strong player in the security market, and unlike many of its competitors has stayed away from the temptation to move into the SOA management space. This is the first lateral move for Forum into the broader SOA market and it will be interesting to see if its newest product will perform and sell as well as its Sentry and XWall product lines.With the growing interest in SOA and the number of intermediaries being deployed on commoditized hardware and operating systems, the need for accelerated XML parsing/XSLT processing is coming on fast, so Forum's move into the market is well-timed.