The concept of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) existed long before the
current set of Web Services standards. However, it's the widespread adoption
of these standards that has enabled the idea of SOA to enter the mainstream
and to start delivering the level of connectivity and savings it has promised
for so long. Now that SOA has hit the mainstream, some are attempting to show
how SOA can be successfully implemented using pre-Web Services technologies.
This article will show why these approaches fail to fulfil all aspects of SOA
and become exercises in rediscovering why SOA depends on Web Services
technology.
Before looking at some of the shortcuts that people take, let's start with a
quick recap of the core principals of SOA. SOA is an approach to software
devel... (more)
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) projects have evolved. A couple of years
ago it would have been sufficient to demonstrate connectivity between systems
that were previously isolated. Nowadays these connections must provide
guarantees of reliability, security, and performance. Delivering on such
requirements presents a number of challenges.
Not all of the challenges faced during an SOA ... (more)
Software is now increasingly provided as a service; in other words, it is now
offered as a hosted application that users access through Web browsers. Many
companies see this as an effective way of outsourcing some of their IT
requirements. However, they face an increasing number of integration issues
as part of this strategy. Many are turning to ESBs for a solution.
As the use of Software... (more)