Title: Joining Enterprises with the Global SOA
1Joining Enterprises with the Global SOA
May 16, 2006
David S. Linthicum CEO BRIDGEWERX
david_at_bridgewerx.com
2What is the Web 2.0?
- Web 2.0 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The term "Web 2.0" refers to what some people see
as a second phase of development of the World
Wide Web, including its architecture and its
applications. - Clearly, the Web has become the platform of
choice for many organizations, and with success
of SaaS (Software as a Service) companies such as
Salesforce.com and NetSuite, this is quickly
becoming true. - Also, we are clearly moving from dynamic visual
interfaces to dynamic non-visual services, all
accessible over the Internet. All of this is Web
2.0, or better yet the Global SOA.
3Moving to Outside In
- Today, more services exist outside the enterprise
for use within the enterprise. - Examples
- Amazon.com
- eBay
- Salesforce.com
- NetSuite
- Many others
- Leveraging outside services provides enterprises
with - More agility with their ability to add, change,
and delete services as needed - Reuse of services they did not need to create or
maintain - Better value chain integration incorporating both
customers and suppliers - Exposing business services outside of the
enterprise Inside out
4Major Software Players Moving to SaaS ModelASAP
- Today, the opportunity is to utilize the
Internet to make software far more powerful by
incorporating a services model which will
simplify the work that IT departments and
developers have to do while providing new
capabilities. - Bill Gates, October 30, 2005.
5Current Trends
- We are moving toward a day when most of our
enterprise applications may be delivered as
services, and thus provide a more economical way
to approach information technology management
with businesses going forward. - This is also the great equalizer since
businesses, large and small, will have access to
the same number and quality of services, much
like they do with Web sites today. - Shared services will create many opportunities,
including better agility and the ability to
operate a business with fewer IT resources. - In essence, we're moving to Web 2.0 where service
delivery over the Internet will be added to
information deliver as the key strategic value of
the Web to businesses, as well as extending the
Web as a true platform.
6However, it will Take Some Work
- In order to make this a reality, we must learn to
how to bridge the gaps between our enterprise
systems and SOAs, and Web service providers that
exist across the Internet. - Special consideration must be given to
connectivity, interoperability, security, and
shared processes. - Problems are easily solvable with the right
technology and approaches, but I would say that
most out there looking at this new opportunity
dont have a clue as to how to make the new and
old work and play well together.
7The 'Future' Is Here...
Note This is an illustrative, not exhaustive,
list of vendors
8Understanding the Problem
- Service providers must integrate with existing
enterprise systems to become more valuable. - However, existing internal integration needs to
exist to ensure - Production and consumption of structured
information - Semantic mediation
- Security mediation
- Service enablement
- Firewall management
- Transactional integrity
- Holistic management of complete integration chain
9Understand Outside Interfaces
Sales Order Update
New Accounts
Commission Calculation
Data Cleaning
Best Practices as Shared Processes
10Understanding the SOA LevelsWhat Works for Your
Enterprise?
- Level 0 SOAs are SOAs that simply send SOAP
messages from system to system. There is little
notion of true services, but instead, they
leverage Web services as an information
integration mechanism. Hardly SOA, but certainly
a first step. - Level 1 SOAs are SOAs that also leverage
everything in Level 0 but add the notion of a
messaging/queuing system. Most ESBs are level 1
SOAs, leveraging a messaging environment that
uses service interfaces, but really does not deal
with true services (behavior), and instead moves
information between entities as messages through
queues. - Level 2 SOAs are SOAs that leverage everything in
Level 1, and add the element of transformation
and routing. This means that the SOA can move
information from source and target systems,
leveraging service interfaces, as well as
transform the data/schemas to account for the
differences in application semantics. Moreover,
by adding the element of intelligent routing,
you're able to route the information based on
elements such as source, content, and logical
operators in the SOA. - Level 3 SOAs are SOAs that leverage everything in
Level 2, adding a common directory service. The
directory provides a point of discovery of
processes, services, schemas, and such, allowing
all those who leverage the SOA to easily locate
and leverage assets such as services. Without
directories, the notion of service reuse--the
real reason for building SOAs--won?t work.
Directories are typically standards-based,
including UDDI, LDAP, and sometimes more
proprietary directories such as Active Directory. - Level 4 SOAs are SOAs that leverage everything in
Level 3, adding the notion of brokering and
managing true services. Here is where the
brokering of application behavior comes into
play. In other words, at this level we are not
only about managing information movement, but the
discovery and leveraging of true services. - Finally, Level 5 SOAs are SOAs that leverage
everything in Level 4, adding the notion of
orchestration. Orchestration is key, providing
the architect with the ability to leverage
exposed services and information flows, creating,
in essence, a "meta-application" above the
existing processes and services to solve business
problems. - You can Read this later.
112004 Hype Cycle for IT Services Momentum on Most
ITU-Related Fronts
Application Outsourcing
Key Time to Plateau
Less than two years Two to five years Five to 10
years
ITU or On Demand
Visibility
ASPs or Softwareas Service
Managed Services
Web and Application Hosting
The Arrows Indicate Movement During the Previous
Year
As of June 2004
Slope of Enlightenment
Peak of Inflated Expectations
Trough of Disillusionment
Plateau of Productivity
Technology Trigger
Source Gartner
12What Needs to be Done
- Abstract back-end functions, screens, and data
stores and expose them as services - Mediate semantics through a transformation and
routing layer - Mediate security, accounting for the difference
within the source and target systems - Structure information for movement to and from
the service provider
Partner
B2B Exchange
?
Distributor
Internet
Service Provider
Service Provider
Web Services
Existing Systems
13Getting Ready
- So, how do you prepare yourself? I have a few
suggestions - First, accept the notion that it's okay to
leverage services that are hosted on the Internet
as part of your SOA. Normal security management
needs to apply, of course. - Second, create a strategy for the consumption and
management of outside-in services, including how
you'll deal with semantic management, security,
transactions, etc. - Finally, create a proof of concept now. This does
a few things including getting you through the
initial learning process and providing proof
points as to the feasibility of leveraging
outside-in services.
14Remember, there are a few technical issues that
you must address
- Semantic and metadata management, or, the
management of the different information
representations amount the external services and
internal systems. - Transformation and routing, or, accounting for
those data differences during run time. - Governance across all systems, meaning, not
giving up the notion of security when extending
your SOA to the global SOA. - Discovery and service management, meaning, how to
find and leverage services inside or outside of
your enterprise, and how to keep track of those
services through their maturation. - Information consumption, processing, and
delivery, or, how to effectively move information
to and from all interested systems. - Connectivity and adapter management, or, how to
externalize and internalize information and
services from very old and proprietary systems. - Process orchestration and service, and process
abstraction, or, the ability to abstract the
services and information flows into bound
processes, thus creating a solution
15The Basic Architecture
16Other Thoughts
- At the end of the day, external Web services
should function like any other enterprise
application, both housing and sharing critical
business information as well as services. In
other words, there should be no clear line
between the existing enterprise applications and
the remote services. - Think about it. You have access to thousands of
services with a single on-demand application
provider, as well as information, schemas, etc.,
and the same patterns found in other on-demand
application providers as well. - Moreover, you subscribe to these services rather
than purchase them, and they exist inside of your
enterprise as if they are native.
17Understanding the Value
- It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out
that the creation of an SOA on top of these
applications, including process/orchestration
layers, directory services layers, identity
management, monitoring, semantic management,
etc., would add a tremendous amount of value,
considering the use of those applications and
abstraction into real business solutions. - Indeed, youll find that many SOA's for many
businesses actually exist outside of their
firewalls, making their on-demand applications
work well together. - This trend is only accelerating as Web 2.0
becomes more valuable for enterprises.
18Final Thoughts
- What's cool about this is that businesses will
have to change to remain competitive. As others
learn to embrace Web 2.0 within their enterprise,
like the Web of 10 years ago, others in their
community will have to do so just to keep up. - There are many examples of this today, albeit
it's still early in the cycle. Indeed, many small
businesses may find that the majority of
enterprise processing occurs by leveraging
outside services. Services they don't own and
havent created. Is that scary, or exciting?
19Thanks!
- Blogs
- eBizq.net Linthicum Channel
- IT Toolbox CEOs Guide to SOA and Application
Integration - InfoWorld Real World SOA
- Weekly Podcast
- www.soaexpertpodcast.com
- Columns
- Business Integration Journal
- Web Services Journal