Much of the benefit of service-oriented architecture (SOA) is in standardized messaging interfaces that lessen dependencies between components, as well as giving development teams the freedom to work with the language and environment that best fits their requirements. Along with this freedom comes a wide variety of development tools that must be supported. Developers need Web tools to capture messages and responses, move components in and out of testing environments, and profile performance of these components. Because Web services management platforms work as distributed systems, the amount of capabilities that are required can be immense. Tools have been developed by a number of startup companies, but large system software vendors are getting into the mix via partnerships and mergers. Computer Associates has acquired Adjoin, Oracle has bought Confluent and Oblix, and HP has purchased Talking Blocks. Independent Web service management companies include AmberPoint, Actional, SOA Software, Systinet, and Infravio. The market is quickly evolving so it can be a challenge for IT managers to know which way to turn. They can purchase a complete suite from an independent vendor or a slightly less complete toolset from a large system vendor that will likely be in business well into the future. Another option is to build a solution from custom-built tools and available components.