The Java Business Integration (JBI) specification (JSR 208) aims to eliminate vendor lock-in by providing a standard container in which components from multiple vendors and various integration technologies can interact. In this interview, Ten-Hove, co-specification lead for JBI, takes a closer look at JBI and describes what a typical JBI implementation might look like using a purchase order example.

From the interview:

The JBI specification is a standard for what can be called a "container of containers." It describes the architecture and behavior of a framework that hosts plug-in components, and allows them to interact using a WSDL [Web Services Description Language] 2.0-based messaging system, using WSDL's services model. The goal is to allow users to obtain plug-in components that provide all the functions needed to provide an integration solution, without getting locked into a particular vendor. Components will be portable between JBI implementations.

Read Standardizing business integration with JBI

Ron points out that JBI allows EJBs to be scripted using BPEL. He makes it sound like an architectural refactoring:

This helps the J2EE developer by allowing him to write business processes using BPEL, rather than embedding the process logic into Java code.

Here Ron alludes to WSDL being a kind of magic glue that affects J2EE design:

The JBI messaging model is based on WSDL...
J2EE developers can use JBI to ... expose existing J2EE components as services...
More importantly, the J2EE developer can design his applications without specific knowledge of how such services are provided.

Anyway, I've no doubt JBI could become the dominant SOA container. It's Java's best enterprise middleware.

I suppose the NMS could track replicas, which JBI vendors could leverage for proprietary features such as fail over and load balancing.

A future version of JBI might want to predefine core features as abstract services, in which case the NMS could be exposed as a standard service, NMSs could cross-reference eachother, so discovery of remote engines and services would be possible akin to JXTA.