Service-Oriented Architecture

SOA and the Rise of WOA

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:00:00 EST

How does SOA work, how can it be used? And what is WOA? With the use of a real-world example,this article describes why a properly planned and implemented Service Oriented Architecture can create a flexible way of aligning business and IT.

Building Blocks of SOA Governance

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:00:00 EDT

SOA initiatives have gathered momentum in the past year with more enterprises either implementing SOA or considering implementing in the near future. The implementations we studied reveal that one of the critical challenges in SOA is designing an effective governance mechanism. A good understanding of governance concepts is essential to implementing and operating a successful SOA. Reliable governance for SOA leads to a manifold increase in an enterprise's ability to achieve the goal of business agility through SOA.

IBM Empowers Business Users with Customized Web 2.0 Software

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:45:00 EDT

IBM announced IBM Mashup Center will be hosted as a free trial on the Web with which non-technical business people can use to experiment and build customized mashups following the success of early corporate adopters Boeing Corporation and Carrefour Group. On schedule for mid-year delivery, the IBM Mashup Center allows business people to create situational applications, or mashups, by remixing information from anywhere to gain business insight and do their jobs smarter and more effectively. Using IBM's mashup technology, even non-technical users will be able to exploit standards and Web-based technology to gain access to myriad information, such as Web sites and feeds, spreadsheets, databases, applications, unstructured text from an email, video, audio and other information on the Web, and make sense of it all in minutes.

HP Extends Software to Meet Requirements for Mainstream SOA Adoption

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:15:00 EDT

HP introduced new and enhanced quality and management software designed to increase the success of mainstream deployment of service-oriented architectures (SOA) by businesses. SOA is an approach to delivering IT services in a secure and manageable way that uses loosely connected, reusable and standards-based technology that can be aligned to changing business needs.

VocaLink Selects IONA's SOA Infrastructure Suite to Support Euro Payment Services

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:15:00 EDT

IONA announced that VocaLink has selected IONA Artix Data Services as a component of VocaLink's Euro Payment Service for its pan-European and global customers. VocaLink provides its customers with the facility to translate legacy format payments into a SEPA compliant format, using Artix Data Services, minimizing the impact of SEPA compliance for customers.

Intel Announces Intel SOA Expressway for Healthcare

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Intel Corporation announced Intel SOA Expressway for Healthcare, software that provides a way to exchange healthcare information inside hospitals and with health information networks. The product will allow healthcare providers to connect with one another so that each can provide better care while benefiting from reduced integration costs.

Why 'Enterprise Architects' Are Ineffective with SOA

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:00:00 EST

Architectures are like archaeology; in essence, layers upon layers of systems, applications, databases, and connections, typically built or procured to solve a tactical problem. Many corporations talk a good game and brag about the strategic long-term direction of the enterprise architecture that serves the business. The fact is, tactical needs have trumped strategic direction over the years.

Handling Attachment Payloads in SOA

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:00:00 EST

SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is an architectural paradigm that aims to achieve loose coupling and reuse among software components. It's emerging as the main integration and architectural style in today's complex software infrastructure. Web Services aim to provide interoperability in machine-to-machine interaction over the network.

Just How Fit Is Your SOA?

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:15:00 EDT

So you've decided to invest in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). You've read up on it and heard the experts proclaim its potential to transform the way your business interoperates. You're excited about SOA's prospects and what it will do to improve the fitness and agility of your company. The only thing left to do is take the plunge.

The Indispensable SOA

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:45:00 EDT

SOA has been aggressively hyped by the IT industry as a technology that can - and does - change the very nature of business. In recent times - as you well know - the Internet was a similar technology - and as with the Internet, we at IBM actually believe the hype to be true.

Understanding SOA Architectures and Models - Part 1

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EDT

I spent a few hours of my weekend attempting to research and define these concepts a bit better, in essence, taking everyone's opinions and normalizing them so they make better sense. What I found were many of the same notions, defined differently, but all attempting to solve the same problems. Seems to be a common theme within the world of SOA, but I digress.

How Much Will Your SOA Cost?

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:00:00 EDT

I'm consulting now...at the project and strategy levels...and finding that a lot of real work needs to be done to get SOAs up and running. For most organizations, the first step of their SOA project is to figure out how much this SOA will cost. So you can budget appropriately and get the funding.

Learning from SOA Mistakes

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 07:30:00 EDT

Today, global businesses are increasingly turning to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for their information technology infrastructure and applications. SOA is becoming an increasingly practiced approach to building software solutions as it can support integration and consolidation of activities in complex enterprise systems.

Scaling Enterprise SOA Deployments

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:45:00 EDT

The first wave of integrating storage, computing, and networking hardware helped businesses move from client/server to Internet-based peer-to-peer networks. A second wave of integrating applications on top of the hardware infrastructure promised to deliver unprecedented economies of scale. In today's enterprise IT model, applications exposed as services need to be integrated seamlessly with other applications distributed across the network to generate the best operational efficiencies. Messaging-oriented middleware is at the heart of enabling seamless or 'effortless' integration between a business's core assets: its applications and data residing on the network.

Real SOA

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:15:00 EDT

SCA is a powerful and simple business level programming model that extends prior approaches to be able to implement services based solutions. SCA defines how services can be described, assembled, and deployed in a meta-data driven fashion, independent of an implementation language and a deployment platform. The approach is based on the idea that each business function consists of one or more components brought together into a composite application. These, in turn, are composed into a network of services that create specific business solutions.

Long-Running Transactions in SOA

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:30:00 EST

Most organizations that have tried have been successful in implementing a pliable Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm. Analysts have come out with strategies to translate existing applications into SOA-compliant systems using a staggered approach. The rewards reaped come in the form of low-cost maintenance and agility in their business, along with reusable and self-contained services. But there are still challenges in this form of service-based architecture and solutions need to be devised.

Automation: A New Imperative for SOA Application Success

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:00:00 EST

For several years, software vendors have been creating development and infrastructure products for the latest IT architecture style - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Recognizing the immense value SOA can bring to IT, companies like BEA, IBM, and Microsoft have delivered products to help customers design and build SOA-based applications. These vendor-driven initiatives are beginning to sprout actual customer-developed applications that are built on the promise of SOA, such as better flexibility, agility and reuse.

Considering the SOA Reference Model

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:45:00 EST

The main drivers for SOA-based architectures are to facilitate the manageable growth of large-scale enterprise systems, to facilitate Internet-scale provisioning and the use of services, and to reduce the cost of organization-to-organization cooperation - SOA RM

Considering the SOA Reference Model

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:00:00 EST

SOA RM: '...in SOA, services are the mechanism by which needs and capabilities are brought together' Recently OASIS voted the SOA Reference Model (SOA RM) into a standard. In spite of its high level of abstraction, this model emphasizes the business orientation of SOA.

Keep to the Original Intent of SOA

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 11:00:00 EST

The original inspiration for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was vendor neutrality and interoperability among best-of-breed technology components, comprising a cohesive system that is flexible and adaptable enough to meet ever-changing enterprise demands. Yet, recent news from well-regarded SOA technology vendors might lead one to believe SOA is heading in the opposite direction, toward a multi-faceted yet proprietary solution from a single source provider. What should enterprises consider as they plan SOAs, or do if their SOA implementations are already underway? This article reviews the best-of-breed versus proprietary approaches, and draws conclusions based on the original intentions for SOA.

Ten Things to Think About When Building the Perfect SOA

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:30:00 EST

Right now the implementation of SOAs seems involve much more hype than actual work. However, there are some patterns beginning to emerge, or, procedures the implementers are doing right to insure success. These patterns are not always obvious, so perhaps this is a good time to learn through the successes of others and do our own homework before we spend millions on moving to an SOA.

The Technologies Behind SOA Governance

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:45:00 EST

In last month's article, we discussed the motivation for SOA governance and the areas where governance should be applied. We also pointed out that, while SOA governance is not a shrink-wrapped product that you can simply implement off-the-shelf without also addressing important organizational and procedural issues, putting the right software mechanisms into place enhances the ability to automate the enforcement of policies and controls.

Governance: The Last Mile of SOA

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:00:00 EST

The phrase 'SOA governance' is more likely to generate a sense of apprehension among IT professionals than any warm feelings. After all, most companies are still in the early stages of SOA adoption and so the practice of governance - and likely the concept itself - will be new territory. Yet, if companies are to realize any meaningful and lasting impact from SOA, then governance is a fact of life with which organizations are going to have to become comfortable. Governance - more than any other factor over the long term - will make the difference between SOA success and failure, and proficiency in governing the SOA environment will distinguish IT leaders from laggards.

Service Orientation, The Enterprise Architecture Way

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 03:45:00 EST

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is gaining momentum as a new IT implementation paradigm. Organizations are eager to capitalize on its benefits. However, with many of these organizations focusing too narrowly on project-specific implementations, though, some are at risk of never achieving the full value that the SOA concept could bring them. Their result will be a collection of technology-driven remnants instead of a holistic, business-driven system of integrated services.

Best Practices for Building SOA Applications

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:15:00 EDT

This article is the second part of a two-part series covering best practices for building Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. The following are the seven key steps for effective SOA adoption:

The Seven Secrets of SOA Success

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:45:00 EDT

There's no doubt that the computing era of Service Oriented Architecture is upon us. Everyone has caught SOA fever (is it S-O-A or SO-AH?) and most Fortune 500s are considering or have already implemented their first set of services.

The Optimization Appliance

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:30:00 EDT

An efficient Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementation distributes as much processing as possible to trusted appliances in the nearer tiers, where intelligent content-based routing decisions made by highly efficient processors can also perform caching, transformations, and other functions. This article will present a detailed example of a 'Las Vegas Casino' that has been implemented as a set of distributed Web Services and provide a step-by-step guide for delivering these services. The implementation of this virtual casino extends from the farthest tier of the central database engine all the way out to client, where acceleration has been transparently injected into the browser for an optimal user experience.

Did You Know There's a "C" in SOA?

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 13:00:00 EDT

When designing your SOA and services, keeping the service consumer in mind will make the job easier. Consumers must conform to the interfaces of each service they use and invoke them with the right data in the right format. The more similarity there is among services, the less coding and translation your consumers will have to do. Using the techniques of transformation, semantic data modeling, and a conceptual data model can make your job much easier - both during initial design and testing and when making changes later.

The Challenges of SOA

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:00:00 EDT

'Our processes are bulletproof. Nothing gets into production that doesn't go through the proper and complete approval process.' Famous last words uttered by far too many enterprise architects. Some of them actually believe it's true - others think that by hoping it's true, maybe, just maybe, they can make it true.

The Business Value of SOA-Based Agile IT Architectures

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:15:00 EDT

Agile IT systems are systems that are malleable enough to address business uncertainties. Such systems can effectively respond to internal and external stimuli in a very short period of time. Flexible IT systems imply that the IT architecture underlying them is itself flexible and lends itself to incorporating changes in a dynamic fashion. Architectural approaches such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) are transforming the way IT systems are designed by bringing in a high degree of reuse and loose coupling of applications.

Extending Identity Management Solutions Into a SOA

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:30:00 EDT

Companies are under tremendous pressure to meet the complex business requirements found in their IT infrastructures. For example, they need to expose their applications to external trading partners, comply with government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, integrate merged companies or their own complex application environments.

Best Practices for Building SOA Applications

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:45:00 EDT

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) facilitates the development of applications as modular business services that can be easily integrated, secured, and administered. Benefits of an SOA approach include more-rapid development, decreased maintenance and change management costs, and improved business visibility. However, achieving these benefits isn't automatic - although many early adopters of SOA have been able to realize its promise fully, others have struggled to find the best architecture and design patterns for this approach.

Turning Service-Oriented Events into Business Insight

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:00:00 EDT

The quest for agility has spurred the recent rise of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the face of modern IT integration architecture is changing. Technology stovepipes of the past are now being connected by Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) technology, which provides the backbone for the networking, communication, mediation, and service container management needed to support an SOA. Every integration software vendor provides some form of ESB in its products and the ESB has risen to the status of a de facto standard for SOA integrating. But what's the next step in the evolution of the IT integration fabric?

SOA and User Interfaces

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:15:00 EDT

What is unique about an SOA is that it's as much of a strategy as a set of technologies, and it's really more of a journey than a destination. Moreover, it's a notion that is dependent upon specific technologies or standards, such as Web services and interface technology, but really requires many different types of technologies and standards for a complete SOA. The types of technologies you employ are dependent upon your requirement.

The Business Benefits of Shared Services in an SOA

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:45:00 EDT

Ever striving for competitive advantage, organizations frequently turn to information technology. This quest - and the numerous technologies and architectural approaches adopted to maximize the value of the information captured in IT assets - has resulted in a collection of frequently incompatible systems and technologies. Organizations find themselves with an accidental IT architecture that limits organizational communication and effectiveness and that should be integrated into a cohesive vision for IT to deliver maximum value to the organization.

Mainframe to SOA - The People Effect

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 11:00:00 EDT

As Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) initiatives attain critical mass in the enterprise, there's more and more interest in boosting business results and competitiveness (not to mention leveraging significant long-term investments) by incorporating mainframe assets into the SOA. However, if this attention is myopically focused on data and functionality, companies may be overlooking the mainframe's highest potential for rapid time-to-market and ROI: the value of the expertise resident with mainframe developers.

The Art of SOA - More Than Optimal Is Ineffective

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:00:00 EDT

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) refers to an architectural solution that creates an environment in which services, service consumers, and service producers co-exist yet have no dependence on each other. SOA enables an enterprise to increase the loose coupling and the reuse of frequently used software assets. These software assets together with the functionality that they provide are called services in SOA terminology. By nature SOAs are typically applied to solutions with highly volatile requirements.

Does a Web Service Make a Service for SOA?

Sat, 13 May 2006 11:00:00 EDT

What could be easier than to take your application, wrap it with a Web Service, announce it or register it in the UDDI and get a SOA Service? Even better - take a data warehouse, cover a SQL executing code with a Web Service and expose it to SOA, isn't it simple? This article is for those architects and managers who like such 'simplicity.' If you believe that a Web Service itself doesn't convert an application into the SOA Service, you might read the article just out of curiosity.

Are You SOA New School, or Old?

Fri, 05 May 2006 11:00:00 EDT

It has come to my attention that there are really two kinds of SOA technology vendors out there, old school and new school - each offering very different approaches to solving the SOA problem. I'm not going to mention any particular vendors, but you guys can guess who they are.

SOA Is Here - Are You Ready for IT?

Fri, 05 May 2006 10:15:00 EDT

While significant attention has been paid to the benefits offered by service-oriented architecture (SOA), which has led to an increased understanding of the challenges that SOA poses as well, far less consideration has been given to the changes that this approach will impart on the IT organization itself. With the discussions around SOA having recently shifted from 'if' and 'why' to 'when' and 'how,' three important questions now need to be addressed by organizations embarking on an SOA strategy: How will you manage your SOA, how will you pay for your SOA, and how will you staff your SOA?