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While delivering a talk on SOA I've asked the audience the following question, 'What do you think is the driving force for implementing any technology or architecture in a decent size Enterprise?' The answers were typical: better code re-usability, accessibility? But I was looking for ...
We are at an inflection point in the SOA roll out: with enterprises developing infrastructure and deploying services, the attention is now turning to how to deliver the services to the end user, increase service reuse, and deal with governance. The last mile of SOA needs to be bridged ...
At my firm, Infosys Technologies, I have come across several clients who are actively trying to explore, consider, adopt, embrace, or become completely immersed in SOA. Here is a typical call I've received, where our client rep says, 'Ajit, we've got a very critical meeting with the CI...
Working directly on SOA projects as an independent I'm exposed to many more organizations than when I was building technology. As such, I see some common patterns or issues emerging. The largest and most disturbing is the fact that there seems to be a huge chasm yawning between the tra...
The term 'architecture group' is a heavily loaded one. I've run into different scenarios at the various clients that have engaged us for consulting on their architecture strategy. In some cases, we have been asked to help seed and grow such a group. In other cases, we've been asked to ...
At the end of each year, when SYS-CON informally polls its globe-girdling network of software developers, industry executives, commentators, investors, writers, and editors, our question is always the same: where's the industry going next year?
The entire premise behind the Web services paradigm is enabling access to loosely coupled services via the Web. In essence, Web services are based on a synchronous request-response type interaction. On the other hand, a client's interaction with a Web service can be synchronous or asyn...
Data is king in today's information-driven economy, which is why organizations are willing to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on data integration frameworks and applications. These organizations understand two critical truths: they have yet to capitalize on the pote...
Companies that decide to invest in SOA sometimes end up going to extremes - too little or too much. Too little happens when some stakeholder latches onto the buzzword and wants to get the benefits promised. However, the environment may be too conservative to invest in the infrastructur...
In financial trading, if you're slow to act on an opportunity, it's gone, seized by a quicker competitor. His profit is your loss. Electronic traders can easily miss a trading opportunity because their trading algorithms failed to detect the right conditions - or didn't detect them qui...
A few years ago, when Web services started out as a buzzword in the enterprise, the whole paradigm was associated with (and still is) associated with three concepts - SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. Now, when enterprises are putting Web services into production, you will most likely see two out ...
I caught a review in Fast Company of an interview that Craig Newmark of Craigslist had with ABC's Nightline News. I didn't see the interview myself, but Fast Company did a good job highlighting the more important points, including the fact that Craigslist, which offer free classified a...
One of the biggest barriers to SOA adoption is fear of not meeting the high demands of the runtime environment coupled with the need to provide business agility. As more layers have been introduced by the components of the new technology stacks, the points of failure in distributed app...
I know what you're thinking: SOA hype has reached an absurd level and now someone is literally proclaiming that it will change the world - but bear with me for a minute. Anyone who has been around corporate IT for the last five years or so has seen an avalanche of development work sent...
'So much can go wrong if all stakeholders are not in complete sync - in both the kitchen renovation and SOA world,' writes John Crupi. Currently in the process of renovating his kitchen, he keep seeing similarities between renovating a kitchen and building a SOA. Read on for his brilli...
Ask 10 people the question: What is SOA? You will most likely get 10 different answers. Chances are that in more than 50 percent of the cases, the word 'Web services' will be a part of the answer. Another 20 percent will talk about process orchestration, XML, integration, and so on. Al...
It never ceases to amaze me how ambiguity in the definition of simple terms can lead to design choices that have a huge impact on the success of projects. Recently I had a long discussion with a colleague at a client site, where we are in the process of assessing the artifacts that hav...
Last month I talked to a couple of vendors who are making new inroads in the services arena through open source offerings. Open source support in Web services is definitely very heartening. While the frameworks and utilities for implementing Web services in enterprise applications have...
BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Iona, Siebel and Sybase today announced their united support for a new specification for building and packaging applications called 'Service Component Architecture' or SCA ? characterized as 'a deployment descriptor on steroids' by those close to the spec.
Timely delivery of a quality Web services solution requires functional testing at each layer, throughout the development process. New test automation solutions empower insurance domain experts to verify critical business processes at each phase and layer of delivery.
Christopher Wilson explores the things to watch out for in the workplace that might be sure signs that it's time to move on from your current IT gig. Included in his analysis are three major mistakes to look for in your manager. 'Take any of these as a sign that it is time to have that...
It seems as though as soon as the open source community rallies around a technology, the IT industry starts taking it more seriously - and finds practical application for it. Ironically, although organizations like the concept, despite the maturation of the open source community in a v...
I know I shall be accused of being old-fashioned, but sometimes in order to understand the present, let alone the future, one of the very best starting-places is the past. Take for example the present surrounding Web services. The best clue to what is happening right now comes from a p...
Over the last few years, Web services and SOA have made a lot of inroads into not only the IT departments of large enterprises, but also into the minds of the business owners of different LOBs (Lines of Business). SOA is more than Web services; it is the mantra for bridging the gaps an...
As organizations bravely venture into the world of Web services, they grapple with the age-old question - where do we begin? The main challenge that I have seen with key stakeholders looking to move towards the agile enterprise is solving the dilemma of which approach to take, top down...
Over the last couple of years, the industry has rallied around SOA and its main realization platform - Web services. While many of the clients I meet are still wary about the adoption of new technology, integration dilemmas posed by the variety of software and hardware platforms has le...
As SOA and Web services adoption in the industry is gaining more momentum, the need to get quick wins and to show the value of adopting new (or old) paradigms is weighed against the risk of facing the repercussions of slapping something together in a quick and dirty fashion and paying ...
The enterprise service bus (ESB) is, arguably, emerging as the preeminent platform for building, deploying, and managing Web services. However, once you have created and deployed your Web services, what's the next step? For many developers, it is the orchestration of those services int...
I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself. I've been working with SYS-CON for about eight years now, across different publications, so when Sean talked to me about providing regular content for WSJ, I thought to myself, 'Cool.' I am also the enterprise editor for JDJ - so you shoul...
Packaged business applications have dominated enterprise IT landscapes for over a decade. Now these products are undergoing major changes to segway into the world of Web Services. SAP has been one of the most aggressive companies in embracing this revolution. Its NetWeaver platform is ...
A couple of months ago I got an e-mail inviting me to keynote an SOA/Web Services conference in Beijing. My immediate reaction was - 'Good. China has reached the stage where it's hosting international conferences on the subject.' Actually, 2005 marks the fourth time this particular con...
For Christmas this year, I got just what I asked for - a new gadget. I collect gadgets, so this was nothing new, but this gadget has altered the way I live; I now live with a BlackBerry on my hip.
The Apache Web Services Project is an umbrella project consisting of many projects. The scope of projects goes from SOAP implementations to a UDDI implementation to a host of WS-* implementation efforts. The developer community is a vibrant one, coming from a mixture of large companies...
Enterprises are demanding integration tools that enable more seamless interoperability across diverse integration-ware paradigms: old, current, and emerging. The industry has coined a new three-letter acronym - enterprise service bus (ESB) - that speaks to the dream of standards-based ...
Who Is David Litwack? Litwack is responsible for the development and advancement of Novell's secure Web services strategy, a position he assumed in July 2002 following Novell's acquisition of SilverStream Software, a company for which he'd served as president and CEO since 1997. He is ...
Web services will continue to play a vital role within enterprises, as companies strive to create cost-effective solutions that can be integrated into existing infrastructures. J2EE and Microsoft's .NET are the two primary platforms used in Web services. And while these two platforms c...
Web services are already changing the integration model for enterprise applications, and they offer even greater promise for the future. It's not going to happen overnight, but there is an ever increasing focus on incorporating Web services into new applications and existing infrastruc...
I recently wrote an editorial as editor-in-chief of .NET Developer's Journal in which I openly questioned the value of re-architecting existing systems to use the latest and greatest technologies. Specifically, I illustrated my argument with the case of a local ISV (independent softwar...
We're all familiar with the Gartner 'hype cycle,' we've experienced the roller coaster ride it describes as we've worked to move a new technology towards becoming relevant. Web services has been evolving for approximately 36 months, and many already claim victory. However, while there'...
'When change within your organization is slower than that without, you're in real trouble. We can't predict the future, but we can learn to react a lot faster than our adversaries.' - Jack Welch


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