July 08, 2008

Is it SOA, or Not?

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TAGS: None

July 07, 2008

Are you seeing SOA rage?

I'm getting some reports from a few of those charged with making SOA work within some of the larger enterprises. They are experiencing what I call SOA rage. SOA rage is the negative reaction some of the architects are getting from those charged with changing existing systems. I expected some of this. We're doing a few things that could indeed get on the last nerve of existing IT, such as looking at existing inefficiencies, including static and hard-to-change architectures that allow you to determine the ROI of SOA. Many preserve these attacks on systems and processes that they have cared... more

TAGS: SOA

July 03, 2008

"Ten ways to tell it's not SOA" -- and a few more

Joe McKendrick knocked it out of the park this week with his latest entry, "Ten ways to tell it's not SOA." A few of my favorites: "1) If a vendor tells you that you need to buy a suite to get to SOA ... it's not SOA. SOA means complete freedom from suites and integrated packages." "2) If a vendor is trying to sell you hardware ... it's not SOA. Enough said." "6) If your CIO is clueless about what's going on with shared services ... it's not SOA. To truly function, SOA-based infrastructures need to cross organizational boundaries, and... more

TAGS: None

July 01, 2008

Progress is Hungry for SOA Companies

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TAGS: Podcast

June 27, 2008

Progress now eats Mindreef … must be hungry

As Joe McKendrick found out last night, it appears that Progress also purchased Mindreef, a testing and validation tool vendor. "Progress Software's announcement that it had acquired IONA Technologies earlier this week was big news, but the vendor didn't stop there. In another acquisition that almost seems to have slipped under the radar, Progress also has acquired Mindreef, provider of SOA service validation and testing tools, as announced here at the Mindreef Website. (It's not clear exactly when the acquisition actually took place.)" (Full disclosure: Mindreef was a client of mine at the Linthicum Group, and at ZapThink.) Clearly, Progress... more

TAGS: None

June 25, 2008

Progress eats Iona -- now what?

Under the topic of "Who did not see this coming?" Progress said Wednesday it is offering $4.05 per share in cash for Iona, a total equity value of $162 million, or $106 million net of cash and marketable securities. It was no secret that Iona was looking for a buyer, and Progress seems like a logical acquirer. Now, they have more in their shop to sell in the SOA space and a nice way to penetrate deeper in a market that's still emerging. Also, good price. For the legacy business alone, $106 million seems well worth the money. However, I... more

TAGS: SOA

June 24, 2008

SOA consulting: Money-back guarantee?

You have to admit that SOA consulting, at least from the larger players out there, has been a bit hit and miss. Although I'm sure there are instances where projects are going well, most are over budget and under delivering. I get an e-mail from a frustrated client on a weekly basis, typically asking if budget overruns, changes in the scope of the contract, and delays are normal. Hard to say what is normal -- we've not been at this SOA stuff for long. I do believe, however, that most SOA consulting gigs out there are run and staffed by... more

TAGS: SOA

June 23, 2008

SOA governance dos and don’ts …or maybe not

I had a few reactions to my SOA governance dos and don'ts post of last week. And, for the first time, I agree with them. :-) Perhaps the title should have been "Looking at SOA governance technology." Fist, I saw this from James McGovern. "Todd Biske keeps Dave Linthicum honest regarding SOA Governance. Way too many industry analysts view SOA through the lens of products and refuse to expand the conversation. I would like to add one additional principle: Align your SOA to your enterprise information protection policies as so many so-called enterprise services miss this point." First, he may... more

TAGS: SOA

June 22, 2008

Service design? Think of the three "S"es

So, you need to design a service? That's great. If you're a student of traditional application design, however, you'll find that service design is a bit different. Okay, very different. Indeed, most application developers are struggling with this issue, and many services are created with a bad design and thus are not leveraged. Don't be one of those guys. Consider the three Ss: Scope, schema, standards. Services need to be simplistic in scope. This means that services are not applications; they're more like functions, and thus you need to keep the scope of the purpose of the services very specific.... more

TAGS: SOA

June 19, 2008

SOA governance Dos and Don'ts

SOA Governance is one of those things in the world of SOA that's largely misunderstood. I can understand why, as the vendors are defining it differently. However, as SOA problem domains become more complex, typically more than 50 services, the need for SOA governance becomes even more apparent. So, how does one select a SOA Governance solution? It's really a matter of a few dos and don'ts. Dos Do select a vendor that provides SOA governance features that are more runtime in nature. Many SOA governance tools focus on design-time features, which are fine, but the runtime features provide the... more

TAGS: SOA

June 18, 2008

SOA Lite?

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TAGS: Podcast

June 15, 2008

Service externalization is not easy

Those that are building SOAs out there are looking to expose some internal services to consumers outside of the firewall. Typically this is done for supply-chain mechanisms, such as allowing suppliers and customer to check inventory by invoking a service. Perhaps that service is part of some remote applications, a mashup perhaps, or just abstracted into a spreadsheet. That's the thing with services; you can do so much with them. However, the process of externalizing services to the wild world of the Internet is not an easy one. You need to consider a few things, including: Security/authorization Standards mediation Versioning... more

TAGS: None

June 12, 2008

How to sell SOA (Part II)

In my previous post, I introduced a few key concepts to sell SOA, including: Shining a light on existing limitations Creating the business case Creating the execution plan Delivering the goods Let's add to that list. Creating the business case refers to the process of actually putting some numbers down as to the value of the SOA to the enterprise or business. This means looking at the existing issues (from the previous step), and putting dollar figures next to them. For instance, how much are these limitations costing the business, and how does that affect the bottom line? Then, how... more

TAGS: selling SOA

June 10, 2008

BPEL Falling?

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TAGS: Podcast

June 09, 2008

How to sell SOA (Part I)

Many organizations out there don't really have to sell SOA. They instead understand that the hype is the driver, and in essence leverage the thousands of articles and books on the topic to sell this architectural pattern. However, in most cases SOA has to be sold within the enterprise. Indeed, if you're doing SOA right you'll find that the cost quickly goes well into the millions, thus you'll need executive approval for that kind of acceleration in spending. However, the benefits are there as well, including the core benefit of agility that could save the company many times the cost... more

TAGS: SOA