Crosscheck Networks Buys Forum Systems

June 1, 2009

Crosscheck Networks has acquired Forum Systems, a pioneer in Web service security and gateway policy enforcement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Mamoon Yunus, who served as Forum Systems president and chief technology officer at the time of the acquisition, will lead Crosscheck Networks as president and CEO. Forum Systems will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and will be led by Vice President of Operations, Rizwan Mallal.

Fueled by demand for IT architectures that drive the ability to adopt next-generation approaches such as cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), organizations are seeking products that enable a quicker, more effective, more efficient approach to Web service development and deployment. Traditionally, Web service delivery has comprised multiple, disparate entities operating independently. Addressing the inherent inefficiencies in these 'silo-ed' processes, the combined Crosscheck Networks and Forum Systems product suite enables enterprises to build, test and secure their Web services more effectively.

By optimizing the Web service delivery lifecycle, organizations can reduce service development, testing and integration costs. At the same time, they can achieve more efficient policy sharing and deliver services more quickly to their customers and partners. Through the acquisition, Crosscheck Networks' enterprise-class suite now includes the following products that can be deployed together or seamlessly integrated with what organizations are already using:

• SOAPSimulator - An affordable, easy-to-configure, comprehensive service simulation product for developers and testers, SOAPSimulator enables Web services to significantly reduce project expense and duration by allowing parallel development of the client and service components of a SOAP- or XML-based Web service.
• SOAPSonar - Providing simple, intuitive and comprehensive testing for SOAP-, XML- and REST-based services, the SOAPSonar testing framework is easy to deploy and provides testing modes for functional, performance, compliance and security testing.
• Forum Sentry - Simplifying business communications through secure integration across networks and business boundaries, the FIPS- and DoD-certified Sentry XML Gateway ensures preemptive risk mitigation of business transactions exposed via Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) by enabling the ability to develop and deploy robust and reliable SOAP- and XML-based Web services.

Corporations that have implemented Web services are now trying to derive greater value from those deployments. As those organizations scale their initiatives beyond project-specific deployments to encompass more enterprise-wide SOA, the need for product suites that provide comprehensive Web services lifecycle management has become more crucial. Only through well-integrated product suites that eliminate extensive consulting can enterprises rapidly integrate with their partners and customers -- without increasing their risk profile.

According to a January 15, 2009 Gartner report titled, "Emerging Technology Analysis: Application Infrastructure and Middleware, SOA Governance, 2009" authored by Research Directors L. Frank Kenny and Teresa Jones, "SOA governance technology sets cover three main areas: SOA policy management; SOA registries and repositories; and SOA quality assurance and validation. The various technologies should be used throughout the entire service lifecycle..."

"This acquisition is the natural progression of the relationship between our companies and addresses the changing requirements of customers," said Mallal. "Now, more than ever in these difficult economic times, organizations are seeking competitive advantage. By facilitating more collaborative, interoperable and automated processes, we are helping enterprises compress project timelines, reduce time-to-market and ultimately publish their services more quickly than ever before."

"Historically, the biggest impediment to Web services has been effectively and securely facilitating the communication between systems with different architectures," said Yunus. "Through combined services heritage, bolstered by extensive technology partnerships, we are offering an integration, breadth and flexibility unprecedented in the market. As such, organizations can seamlessly complement their existing infrastructure -- and maximize their capital equipment investments -- by deploying what's necessary to efficiently and effectively simulate, test and secure Web services that meet the most demanding regulatory compliance requirements."