MuleSource Ups Open-Source SOA Ante

In addition to the new enterprise release of Mule ESB and the beta release of Mule Galaxy, MuleSource also announced the release of Mule Saturn 1.0, a tool for business activity monitoring for business processes and workflow.

Mule Saturn's features include business user views into workflow and state, process visualization, drill-down and root-cause analysis, and reporting on service-level agreements, the company said.

Rosenberg said with the combination of Mule Enterprise Edition 1.5, Mule Galaxy and the Mule Saturn BAM tool, MuleSource is making SOA infrastructure software more accessible to enterprises.

Indeed, the cost of Mule's governance solution will be just a fraction of what HP charges users for Systinet, Rosenberg said. He said he expects a fully functional Mule governance solution to cost around $75,000, whereas a comparable Systinet solution might start in the range of $350,000.

Roy Schulte, an analyst with Gartner, said overall interest in open-source SOA technology is growing with the increasing use of SOA technology. The low cost of open-source ESBs has "the potential to reduce software costs and enhance vendor independence," he said.

Rosenberg said the emerging popularity of the Mule ESB has enabled the company to credibly add the new capabilities that the market will accept.

"This validates the Mule ESB,” Rosenberg said of the new capabilities the company announced. "I don't know that we would have attempted this if not for the Mule name. We do believe we have the brand behind us."

Rosenberg said MuleSource continues to grow, and he is looking to expand the company's engineering and sales groups immediately.