Mindreef

Mindreef has been acquired by Progress Software Corporation, a world-leading independent developer of software for transforming mission-critical business operations.

1. What business is Mindreef in?
   
   Mindreef provides award-winning Web services testing and SOA quality management solutions that help organizations ensure trust, confidence and agility in their SOA deployments. Gartner categorizes Mindreef under SOA Quality Assurance and Validation within the SOA Governance Technology. Additional taxonomies within the SOA Governance Technology include SOA Policy Management, SOA Registry/Repository and SOA Monitoring.
   
   
2. What products does Mindreef sell?
   
   Mindreef offers SOAPscope Architect, SOAPscope Tester, SOAPscope Developer and the SOAPscope Server. SOAPscope Server is their flagship product and provides collaborative quality processes throughout the service development lifecycle that range from defining organizational SOA policies, to Web services testing, diagnosis and simulation, as well as user support.
   
   The role-based products are subsets of the major features of SOAPscope Server – laser-focused for the individual who needs them, but who does not need the collaborative teams capabilities. Each is focused on a role, including policy compliance for the architect; performance, scalability and general testing for the tester (or the developer focused on testing); and quality and diagnostic tools for the developer or application support engineer.
   
   
3. What is the Mindreef value proposition?
   
   Mindreef is committed to SOA Quality and focuses on providing a broad end-to-end solution that spans the service lifecycle. To address quality through every step of the lifecycle effective communication throughout the team is require – A communication framework where all members interact and participate in the ongoing tasks and results of the project. This is accomplished through Mindreef’s industry-leading collaboration that is always on and always accessible, and provides a common project workplace where all members can view, share and discuss all dimensions of the project from validation assets (e.g. test scripts and test cases) to best practices.
   
   For enforceable SOA governance and compliance, Mindreef provides functionality aligned for each team member, starting with the architectural team and continuing through to development and testing.
   
   To complete the offering with a “test early, test often” approach for optimal service quality, Mindreef helps teams incorporate quality and performance at each step with unit testing during development that continues to increase quality levels with functional, acceptance, regression, performance and load testing by the test/QA team.
   
   
4. What is Progress’ SOA Management strategy?
   
   The Progress SOA Management strategy is twofold: First, to assure an organization’s ability to deliver services that consistently meet the expectations of end users, and second, to bring a new dimension to SOA governance.
   
   
5. Why was Mindreef chosen to fulfill that strategy?
   
   Progress did a thorough analysis of the software vendors who offer SOA quality and validation products. Mindreef was chosen because they provide a solution with a methodology that spans the complete lifecycle and not just the needs of testing and quality assurance.
   
   With a methodology that starts with architects and developers, QoS is addressed at the start of every project thus providing an environment for a successful SOA initiative. Mindreef also provides a unique differentiator that addresses effective communication across all disciplines, where a team can collaborate and share Workspaces. Users can set up a test bed and have several people look at it at the same time, which provides the team with a common foundation upon which to work, share test information and assets, and collaborate with one another.
   
   The Actional product group has a long history with Mindreef evidenced by a partnership that began in 2003 and which has created a bundled solution that includes both Actional and Mindreef products.
   
   Mindreef products are created using an architecture that is very similar to the Actional product line; they are both written in Java, use AJAX-based web user interfaces and can run on a standard application server. Having a common infrastructure means that the development work required to engineer integration points is a lot easier. We can therefore develop and release a tightly integrated solution for the market.
   
   
6. Why did Mindreef agree to be acquired?
   
   Mindreef has created one of the most successful SOA testing and validation tools used by more than 3,000 customers. Many of these customers asked Mindreef to take some of their capabilities to the production phase of the service lifecycle in order to use Mindreef for exception management, with it’s strong ability to capture, analyze, modify, and resend messages.
   
   Mindreef also recognized that customer requirements in production are significantly different than earlier lifecycle phases. For example, 24x7 support in all regions of the globe was essential for Mindreef’ enterprise customers once they reached production. Mindreef can now leverage the experience, infrastructure, and best practices that Progress provides for delivering enterprise production-ready solutions. With an organization that has a world-wide presence in 90 countries, offering 24x7 support, enterprises using Mindreef are backed by a worldwide leader in application infrastructure software.
   
   
7. Will Progress keep the Mindreef company name or product names?
   
   Mindreef will be fully integrated into Progress Software, and therefore will adopt the Progress Software company name. Progress expects to retain most Mindreef product names, however, this will be reviewed over the months following the acquisition.
   
   
8. What should Mindreef customers do now? What support can they expect? Where do they go for continued support, service and products?
   
   Support and service will be uninterrupted and will continue to be handled through the existing Mindreef support and service channels. We will host a Webinar on July 22nd for all Mindreef customers that will provide information about the acquisition and the new opportunities that will open up. We will also introduce the Actional product family, and special product offers that are available to existing customers. Details on the Webinar will be announced on the Actional and Mindreef websites as well as via an email.
   
   
9. How does an Actional customer take advantage of the new products?
   
   We will host a Webinar on July 24^th for all Actional customers that will provide information about the acquisition and the new opportunities that will open up. We will also introduce the Mindreef product family, and special product offers that will be made available to existing customers. Details on the Webinar will be announced on the Actional and Mindreef websites as well as via an email.

If you are a Mindreef customer with questions, please contact your Account Manager at (603) 465-2204. Otherwise, please send an email to info@mindreef.com. Thank you.