Actional and Westbridge, two Web services vendors, will soon merge and blend elements of their management and security software. They will create a unified platform meant to assist companies in managing and monitoring service-oriented architectures (SOAs). The merger is part of a Web services industry consolidation, and another instance has been the acquisition of Flamenco by Digital Evolution. The mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships will result in the ability of corporate users to create a SOA with fewer components. The new company will run under the Actional name and will offer independent products, including Actional SoapStation for management and Westbridge XML Message Server for security. Also to be introduced soon is the Actional SOA Command and Control Platform for coordination and governing of all activities in an SOA, including identity and directory services and policy management, and monitoring of other Web services functions, including gateways, firewalls, brokers, and message queuing. The two companies will also combine Actional Looking Glass and Westbridge XMS Management Console into the SOA Command and Control Platform. Officials for Actional say the Command and Control Platform will give users a view from the top down and unified control over the fabric layer of the SOA, in which security, management, message queuing, and other services reside. An analyst says Actional has articulated a very thorough road map vs. some of the other acquisitions in this market, and that bodes well for them.