Sunday, June 29, 2008

Progress acquires Mindreed testing tools

Another step in the consolidation of software testing tools vendors sees Mindreef, who make SOA testing tools, acquired by Progress Software (described here):

Application infrastructure vendor Progress Software has purchased Mindreef, a Hollis, New Hampshire, maker of tools for testing SOAs (service oriented architectures). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Mindreef news follows Progress' announcement earlier this week that it plans to buy fellow SOA vendor Iona Technologies.

A Progress executive said Mindreef's catalog is complementary to its own Actional series of SOA management tools. "Mindreef has been very successful in the [SOA testing] tools and infrastructure for people in the pre-production stage," said Dan Foody, vice president of Actional products at Progress. "Actional has focused more on the production and deployment phases."

Ronald Schmelzer, an analyst with the SOA consultancy ZapThink, called the deal "a huge, positive move for Progress" via e-mail. "Not only does it bolster their ability to deliver high-quality SOA, but it also helps to reinforce the message that SOA is not just about Web services integration and ESBs [enterprise service buses]," he wrote. "SOA is about changing the way we think of and consume IT capabilities, and to do so in an environment of high quality requires a robust platform."

ZapThink expects other SOA platform vendors to move in the direction of quality software testing, perhaps through acquisitions of companies like as iTKO, he added.