Layer 7 Technologies announced a collaboration with Sun Microsystems to help secure and govern Web services built using the Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS). Sun customers will be able to purchase Layer 7 products globally through Sun Professional Services.

“For a secure and manageable SOA, effective policy definition, management and enforcement are critical,” said Dimitri Sirota, Vice President of Marketing and Alliances, Layer 7 Technologies. “The Layer 7 family of SOA Appliances and Gateway software provide Sun Java CAPS' customers unparalleled deployment simplicity, scalability and policy flexibility for their SOA deployments.”

“Our customers will benefit from the integration of best-of-breed SOA enablement, composition, security and operations management,” said Ashesh Badani, Director of SOA Marketing, Sun Microsystems. “Combined with Sun’s strength in identity-based security and management, we will be able to offer customers extremely reliable control and quality for their SOA.”

“The market for SOA governance is a varied one, with many different types of products providing support for governing the behaviour of an SOA,” said Frank Kenney, Research Director for Gartner. “Appliances can be an essential part of a company’s SOA governance strategy. In addition, gateways represent a less-intrusive way to secure and manage services than do agents. Users should make use of appliances in their SOA infrastructures to reduce cost, reduce complexity, and enable integration.”