Evolving from the platform's roots as a Web services management platform, Version 5.0 also can manage assets such as Java Message Service, Enterprise JavaBeans and database traffic. Visibility into JAX-RPC (Java API for XML-based RPC) traffic also is featured.

Through tuning of all aspects of the product, the overall AmberPoint platform operates at five times the speed of its predecessor, according to the company. A new security subsystem is featured as well.

SOA deployments are becoming more complex, according to Ed Horst, AmberPoint vice president of marketing. The company had been accustomed to seeing SOA environments with approximately six Web services in them, but that has changed, he said.

"Now, you're starting to see dozens or hundreds of Web services," he said. "It's just a lot more complex environment that our customers are [managing] at this point."

Policy management improvements in Version 5.0 allow for policies to be designated for sets of Web services, such as a policy applying to all services that are part of an inventory application. As soon as a service goes into production, policies are applied to it. An encryption policy was noted as an example.