Is your enterprise “ecosystem” of apps, systems, and IT components getting overwhelmingly complex? Is managing it and leveraging it getting increasingly challenging? Then it's a fact: you need to get them organized in a more effective infrastructure. One that should bridge them all together and enable a continuous flow of data across the whole structure. You need to move away from the traditional point-to-point integration system and go for an ESB instead. "But why Mule ESB?"

A more than valid question. Here are 5 top reasons why it stands out from all the other ESB products. Why you should consider using it as your future integration platform:
 

But First: What Is an ESB More Precisely?

Take it as a set of principles rather than as a software on its own. A set of “rules” for building out your bus-like infrastructure where your disparate systems:
 

• get bridged together
• exchange data via the communication bus that this ESB system provides; and it's a two-way communication process that takes place: the systems share data among them and they all communicate with the bus individually, as well
• are independent of one another
   

And it's this very last feature that what makes the ESB architecture such a big “leap” ahead from the traditional point-to-point integration system.

But how does this type of bus-like infrastructure for organizing your apps and systems benefit you precisely:
 

• it speeds up marketing your new initiatives
• it enhances productivity, translated into more apps developed within your organization
• it allows you to leverage your existing systems during app development thanks to all the pre-built communication and transformation capabilities
   

Why Move Away From a Traditional Point-to-Point Integration?

Because in a point-to-point integration system your apps are tightly dependent on one another. And this “dependency relation” does interfere with the very principle of organizational agility, doesn't it?
 

What Is Mule ESB? What Sets It Apart from Other ESB Products?

To answer your first question: Mule Soft is a lightweight, highly scalable Java-based service bus (or integration platform, if you prefer) which:
 

• enables developers to connect a whole ecosystem of Saas, on-premises apps and disparate systems quick and easy
• … and to enhance communication between them, a continuous data flow alongside the infrastructure
   

“And what makes Mule as an ESB stand out from the crowd of other ESB products?”
 

Let's point out those key features that set Mule ESB apart from the its “competitors:

1. it's, in fact, a component part of a larger structure of API design management capabilities
2. it comes with a pre-built library of templates
3. … and with out-of-the-box connectors enhancing the reusability of components (and this is big) 
4. it comes with built-in agile software development methods and multiple toolchains boosting your developers' productivity
    

Why Mule ESB? Top 5 Reasons to Consider Using It as Your App Integration Technology

1. It Scales Effectively, Both Up and Down 

And this key feature translates into unlimited freedom for your teams to bridge together as many apps and systems as needed. Mule ESB will scale to efficiently incorporate them all!

In addition to being effectively scalable, Mule ESB's ideally embeddable, as well:
 

• you can embed it into a single app, directly
• or you can plug it into your app server (JBoss, WAS, Tomcat) instead
• and even into a JUnit test case (for yes, it does come with built-in JUnit support, as well)
   

2. It Perfectly Integrates All Components, Irrespective of the Technology Used

And this is a strong argument to consider when you're asking yourself: “Why Mule ESB over another ESB product?”

It's definitely not a restrictive or “picky” ESB: it will incorporate all the existing systems regardless of the technologies that they might be running on: Web Services, JMS, HTTP, JDBC, you name it. 

… from a “POJO” to a component coming from a different framework!

Moreover, not only that it integrates them all under its “umbrella”, but it enhances communication across this infrastructure of various apps and multiple systems. It allows data flows between the bridged apps within your organization and across the web.
 

3. It's Highly Accessible, Supporting a Wide Variety of Code Languages

And this is great news for your Java developers! 

Since it:
 

• comes with a set of widely used tools (Maven, Eclipse, Spring, JUnit) that your team's already familiar with
• uses an XML transformation language for presenting logic layers
• supports multiple code languages: JavaScript, Ruby, Java, Python...
   

In short: your development team will face no problems writing custom code.
 

4. It  Enables You to Reuse Your Components

Here's another reason that makes a great answer, alone, to your “Why Mule ESB?” question! Unlike other integration platforms out there, this one enables reusability!

Your team's empowered to reuse your infrastructure's components. Therefore, it enables them to run the existing ones since it doesn't call for Mule-specific code.
 

5. It's Ideally Lightweight

Mule ESB does, indeed, stand out from a “weight” point of view. Moreover, thanks to its modular design you get to make it even lighter by removing all the modules that you won't use.

While thanks to its configuration model you get to easily add, re-order and upgrade functionality sparing the time you'd otherwise invest in implementing changes to your existing integrations instead.
 

And this is THE list! The one including 5 key reasons why Mule ESB could make a great choice when you consider using an integration platform within your company.

Are there any other ESB products competing with it for your appreciation? Are these 5 reasons not convincing enough or have you already identified possible drawbacks balancing them? Do share your thoughts!