Deciding between ESB (ServiceMix, OpenESB, Mule, etc) vs. Camel

While designing a SOA solution, we face a question "Who will better fit my requirements, an ESB or Camel?"

I will suggest you to first list down what all are Conceptual requirements. Then, match with what Camel or an ESB (ServiceMix, OpenESB, Mule, etc) provides.

Camel provides:

• Routing across multiple transports/components,
• Transformation,
• Mediation,
• Orchestration
• Monitoring

In addition to Camel an ESB provides:

• Infrastructure features: Support for multiple container for hosting of services (Spring, Camel, JBI, Web,...), say you want hosting of new services in JBI container in addition to existing services in external web container, or publishing of adhoc new services (Enterprise Information Integration) on JBI container.
• Modularization: OSGI support
• Integration Platform.