I always thought of CastIron Systems as an appliance based integration model. It was.. until they changed their strategy a little bit. I guess, part of their strategy is still based on appliances.

In anycase, I dont understand why IBM bought them. If it is for integration appliances, they already have DataPower, which is doing very good. IBM says that integrating with cloud based applications using CastIron would be easy. But, it is not like we cannot integrate SalesForce.com or other cloud apps using existing middleware like WebSphere that IBM already has.

It could just be a customer acquisition, since they bring a lot of customer base and over 10 years of experience with them? Well, let’s see. I know for sure there is some overlap between DataPower and CastIron and also with the existing WebSphere Middleware.

Cheers,

Steve Lokam