A look at IBM's Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Solutions

There are two primary functions an ESB performs

1. Messaging, the reliable delivery of information where and when it is needed
2. The augmentation of messages with routing information, data mediation and the distribution of business events, commonly referred to as "Service Enrichment"

ESBs deliver business flexibility and service virtualization by enabling a clear separation between applications which run the business. The ESB delivers an infrastructure for connecting the applications and services together, making it possible for business services and solutions to be modified with minimal impact.  

IBM has 3 different ESB flavors

WebSphereEnterprise Service Bus
WebSphereMessage Broker
WebSphereDataPowerIntegration Appliance

Customers with an investment in WebSphere technologies like WebSphere Application server, WebSphere Portal or WebSphere BPM can leverage WebSphere ESB with their existing skill set, resulting in lower cost and faster time-to-value.

On the other hand, those whose primary challenge is integrating a wide range of non-standard applications into the standards based infrastructures, as well as those who already have an investment in WebSphere MQ will value the flexibility and depth of capability provided by WebSphere Message Broker.

And for those who value the simplified experience of an appliance form factor with easy administration and configuration, and require security at the message level, network level, and device level, the DataPower Integration Appliance delivers all this out of the box.