What is a Federated ESB?
Larger, heterogeneous enterprises often appear as a federation of somewhat autonomous domains based on lines of business, functional or governance areas. In such environments, some services may be shared or reused only within a single domain, while others may be shared or reused throughout the enterprise. In these situations, we recommend some form of ESB federation that matches the needs of the domain federation. ESB federation allows different ESB products to be used in different domains, allowing an optimal match between domain requirements and product capabilities. The roadmap and reference architecture should provide guidelines and even options for product selection for any given domain to ensure enterprise-wide optimization. We further recommend use of a federated service registry and repository to assist enterprise-wide management and governance of reusable services across the enterprise.
