Test Center review: ESP, as in event stream processing, historically has been about as difficult to pull off as its extra sensory perception kin. But a pair of products, Progress Apama 2.4 and StreamBase 3.5, are changing that. “By improving operational insight and automated response — in finance, health care, or general SOA infrastructure monitoring, for example — both solutions can be used to quickly develop apps for building up event correlation out of a flood of enterprise data,” writes James Borck. And while IT has come quite a long way in the quest to monitor and streamline operations, Borck adds that “Although stream processing isn’t new, it hasn’t fully evolved. In the future, ESP systems must develop facilities that more innately finesse complex correlations out of event clouds.” Read the full review. SOA: Dave Linthicum cannot be accused of thinking too little about service-oriented architectures. This week, for instances, he shares some random SOA thoughts he collected over the weekend. For one, most SOA architects are doing a poor job convincing the powers that be that SOA is a good idea. Another: focus on small successes at this point. Best of the blogs: If you’ve gotten out of sync with the business owner, a.k.a. your boss, “according to the leadership book, that’s his failing. But according to the career management book, it’s yours,” explains Bob Lewis, even if said owner/boss seems to be heading in the wrong direction, technology-wise. The news beat: The first release candidate of Windows Vista is due as early as today for developers and as soon as September 5 for the general public. Juniper injects antispam, antivirus, and other security capabilities in a new appliance. And server vendors, such as Dell, HP and Unisys, detail plans to use Intel’s Tulsa chip. Software Development