Reactivity

Reactivity, Inc. operated as a specialized provider of XML gateway solutions before its acquisition. The company was founded in 1998 and established its headquarters in Redwood City, California.

The firm carved out a niche in the technology sector by focusing on the security and acceleration of web services. Its core business involved providing XML (eXtensible Markup Language) gateway and firewall products. These solutions were engineered to manage and speed up application traffic for service-oriented architectures (SOA), which frequently use data-intensive protocols like XML and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Reactivity's offerings catered to a wide array of organizations, from commercial enterprises to Global 500 companies, that were transitioning from older client-server models to more flexible, service-oriented enterprise software architectures. The company's XML gateways enabled these clients to deploy, secure, and accelerate their XML and web services efficiently.

Reactivity's technology was centered on XML infrastructure appliances. These were hardware-based devices combined with a proprietary XML operating system. Key products included the 'Manager,' which allowed for policy definition and enforcement monitoring, and the 'Gateway-D,' a desktop version for developers and testers. The main value proposition was enhancing the performance, security, and availability of applications delivered over a network platform through its policy and threat management capabilities. The company successfully raised $28.9M from investors including Accel, Austin Ventures, Diamondhead Ventures, JK&B Capital, and Maveron. A significant milestone in the company's history was its acquisition by Cisco Systems. The deal was announced in February 2007 and finalized on March 21, 2007, for approximately $135 million. Following the acquisition, the Reactivity team and its product portfolio were integrated into Cisco's Datacenter Switching and Security Technology Group, contributing to Cisco's Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) strategy.

Keywords: XML gateway, service-oriented architecture, SOA security, web services acceleration, application networking, XML firewall, policy management, threat management, network security appliance, XML infrastructure, data center switching, application acceleration, SOAP protocol, enterprise software architecture, IT infrastructure, network performance, application security, Cisco acquisition, web services management, application delivery