What is it? SOA is the delivery of software applications as a family of discrete, business functions, built according to industry standards. When and why do I need it? SOA is applicable to all business areas whenever there is a need to provide a standardized means to access information systems. Where do I apply it? SOA is the current paradigm in systems integration.
Who in my industry uses it? SOA is implemented in most large organizations to reduce IT operating costs and provide business agility.
How we do it!
The Semantisys methodology emphasizes that SOA if first and foremost a business strategy. Semantisys then adds technical innovation by leveraging semantics to provide machine assisted service discovery, creation and transformation in the SOA platform.
Additional Infomation
SOA or Service Oriented Architecture is the current paradigm for organizing information technology resources at the enterprise level. The SOA service is a business function, presented according to well defined technical standards that is provided by any system. Organizing computing resources as standard services enables functionality, currently isolated on proprietary systems, to be shared and reused by all. A successful SOA program requires not only specific technical skill, but as importantly, the business skills to introduce disruptive technology into the enterprise.
SOA represents the culmination and evolution of information technology from the first computers during World War II to the latest facebook and twitter technologies. The first computer paradigm, the mainframe era, began at University of Pennsylvania with the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) computer used to calculate military targets in World War II.
The mainframe era was characterized by high cost, scarce computing resources accessible only by specialized technicians. With the declining cost of computing and frustration with the inaccessibility of mainframes resources, a departmental computing paradigm began in the 70s. Business leaders across the enterprise invested in non mainframe technologies such as Unix mini-computers and client server systems to build their own systems. Departmental computing provided the desired local control but with the side effect of lack of standardization, IT complexity and high costs. Post Y2K, IT leaders realized lessons learned and sought the best of both worlds including reduced cost and complexity while maintaining local departmental control.
SOA applies standardization learned through the mainframe paradigm which retaining local departmental control. Using industry standard SOA technologies such as Web Services mainframe and other systems exposed their business computing functionality through standard services accessible to any authorized users. This represents a cultural change where departmental computing resources now become enterprise resources to be shared. Enterprise governance to incentives, promote and enforce this cross silo sharing of resources is the paradigm shift that remains one of the biggest challenges to SOA.
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The Semantisys methodology emphasizes that SOA if first and foremost a business strategy. Semantisys then adds technical innovation by leveraging semantics to provide machine assisted service discovery, creation and transformation in the SOA platform.
