Talking to people, there is still confusion about what OpenMama is. There are good descriptions of the OpenMama release at the Web Site, but for those with experience of the Nyse/Wombat products, it can be easier to understand the scope of OpenMama by talking about what is not included. 

Mike Schonberg made two very interesting points at the recent  Linux Foundation Enterprise End User summit :  

1. OpenMama is not middleware - it provides a standardised access to a wide range of middleware implementation  via loadable Bridges. The release does contain a sample of a simple open source bridge and more interestingly a project to produce new open source bridge using AMQP (via Cupid) was announced yesterday. However despite its Open Source roots I believe the project will be primarily focused on accessing proprietary bridges in the next few years.  

2. OpenMama is not just an API - it includes a significant chunk of high performance, well tested code.  This code supports a variety of services which makes writing the drivers (known as bridges in OpenMama) much easier.  

In addition to Mike's two steps on the Via Negativa I add the following three steps:   

3. OpenMama is not just for middleware. OpenMama can be used to access market data feeds directly. For example Tick42 will produce a FIX Bridge, that can be loaded into OpenMama to provide a price feed via the OpenMama API. 

4. Nyse middleware is not included. Nyse has produced its own middleware implementations over the years (Data Fabric and the WMW Cache) in addition to its work with Informatica/LBM and TIB. None of these middleware bridges are included. However (and this is very significant) Nyse is committing to using the OpenMama code base in its products ensuring interoperability between OpenMama developed components and Nyse's own products.  

5. OpenMama does not include any feed handlers. Nyse are not including any of their feed handlers in OpenMama. Some Nyse feed handlers will end up using OpenMama via their Feed Handler SDK, but some of the more venerable ones will not.  This means that for 3rd party middleware providers looking to capitalise on Nyse feed handlers, the situation is complicated and I hope Nyse will clarify this situation in the future. 

The idea of listing these negative attributes, is to highlight what is included, rather than to complain. Tick42 are making a major commitment to OpenMama by moving our market data business including RTT to OpenMama. 

Tick42 strongly believe OpenMama has the potential to transform the Market Data landscape, unleashing opportunities for co-operation and collaboration as well as opening up new areas of competition.