posted 15 years ago
Good question!
Mule and ServiceMix or other open source ESBs can help when you will have to integrate your enterprise Java application with other applications, services or other sources of data. So if you just have an enterprise Java application without any need to communicate with other systems, Mule and ServiceMix will not help out.
But where it becomes handy, is when you have to deal with multiple transport protocols (for example JMS, HTTP, FTP, File, RMI) to send and receive messages. Also when there is a need for routing, transformation etc Mule and ServiceMix can help out.
Also, to use the current buzzwords, when you are implementing a SOA based system, Mule and ServiceMix can be used as a services infrastructure that enables communication between services.
To my experience enterprise applications are no silos anymore, but they have to integrate with other existing and new applications and services, and that's exactly the space where ESBs like Mule and ServiceMix can help. I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
Best regards,
Tijs Rademakers
Author of Activiti in Action and Open Source ESBs in Action