an soa call to arms: an open letter to the soa community

1 May 22-24, 2007

Washington Dulles HiltonThe Business Transformation Conference

Adam MichelsonDirector of SOA and Enterprise ArchitectureOptaros, Inc.SessionTitle:An SOA Cal to Arms!

WelcomeWelcome to Transformation and Innovation 2007 The Business Transformation Conference

2 May 22-24, 2007


About OptarosFocus: Consulting complany specializing in open source solutions and the

next genration internet (NGI).

Founded: 2004

Capitalization: VC funded (Charles River Ventures, General Catalyst, Globespan)

Size: Over 125 employees

Number of clients: Over 90 Projects for 50 clients

Offices: Boston, San Francisco, NY, Austin, Chicago, Europe: Geneva, Zurich, Bucharest

Leadership: Bob Gett, Optaros’ founder and CEO President of Cambridge Technology Partner’s North American unit from 1990 to 1996 CEO of Viant from 1996 to 2002

Former CIO of Fidelity and Smith Barney

http://www.wheelstv.net/index.php

http://www.kaplan.com/

http://www.swisscom-mobile.ch/scm/scm_home-en.aspx

3 May 22-24, 2007


Our Take on SOAThe Next Generation Internet (NGI)

Internet Adoption in the US (Apr. 2006)

4 May 22-24, 2007


Our Take on SOAThe Next Generation Internet (NGI)

The NGI platform consists of three major concepts:– The culture of online communities &

social networks– Rich interfaces made possible by

RIA technologies– Application Assembly enabled by

open source software and

service oriented architecturesOSS

SOA

RIA

5 May 22-24, 2007


• Is SOA still emerging or do people just not care? – SOA seems to have been

around for a while, as it was first described by Gartner in 1996.

– Gartner has claimed that SOA will become mainstream in global companies by 2007.

Where are all the SOA projects?SO-A What?

• Are we impressed with what we have seen so far?– A standard definition for SOA was recently provided by

OASIS in their SOA Reference Model. – Having to define a term that is a decade old seems a bit

disconcerting.

6 May 22-24, 2007


Where are all the SOA projects?SO-A What?• Is SOA still catching on or does it confound

organizations? – The business community does not seem to care about SOA,

but does the IT community really care? – We seem to be stuck in an education, hype and proof-of-

concept phase. • We all know how hard it is to define ROI for IT

projects and SOA is no exception. – How much are the agility and reuse benefits that SOA

provides really worth? – SOA has hitched itself to the governance bandwagon as

SOX compliance created budgets to scare us into SOA. Registries have benefited, but have the enterprise SOA architectures been built?

7 May 22-24, 2007


Where are all the SOA projects?The Passion is still there, but only in some

• The SOA community is active and passionate. – We talk to each other with wide-eyed possibilities of loosely-

coupled services orchestrating in our heads • The SOA conferences are still active, the industry is

fraught with conferences with SOA in their name. – The name has buzz, no question about it

• We care, but the rest don't seem to– We try to explain to them the power and elegance of SOA

and they nod – Many leave the SOA conferences having learned a few new

acronyms, but no real projects seem to start

8 May 22-24, 2007


Where are all the SOA projects?Trying to relate…

• I suppose they feel like I do when in an art museum– I know there is something great about what I am looking at,

but I don’t know what– Some people appreciate the art and use fancy terms when

talking amongst themselves to describe what they see, terms that elude me.

– When they describe what they see to me, I see the passion in their presentation, and at the moment I can appreciate some of the greatness that they see - and what makes one artwork great while other are just average.

• But on my own, the greatness is hard to see – it is overwhelming– So I leave the museum with some appreciation for what I saw and maybe

some inspiration– But once I leave I find that I am generally unaffected by the experience as

other priorities overtake my life

9 May 22-24, 2007


Where are all the SOA projects?

• And if members of the IT community are like adults in an art museum, the business community are the kids.– When we talk about SOA with passion and

glee, their eyes gloss over, their bodies go limp, and they think "I'm bored!“

– This is a problem because the business community has budgets and can effect change if they cared to.

• And so here we are, the SOA aficionados• We are moved and passionate about something others

can appreciate, but ultimately has no relevance to them.

10 May 22-24, 2007


Where are all the SOA projects?A SOA Report Card

Winners Losers• Application-level SOA

one-offs• Small-scale reuse

• Enterprise SOA & formal SOA methodologies and modeling

• Large-scale reuse

• REST and JaBoWS • ESBs and SOA Standards

• Mashups and External API’s • Consumable commercial services

• Local Registries due to governance concerns

• Global registries and UDDI ‘Yellow Pages’ – They are dead

11 May 22-24, 2007


An SOA Call to Arms!

• So what do we do? How do the evangelists bring SOA to the people and create some converts? How do we make SOA relevant?

• This is an open letter to the SOA community with some suggestions for how each of us can help the SOA cause.

12 May 22-24, 2007


An SOA Call to Arms!• SOA Solution Providers - Make it clear • Standards Bodies - Keep it simple • Universities - Teach Architecture• Consultants - Make SOA relevant to the business &

management• IT Organizations - Move beyond proof-of-concepts &

thinking locally • SOA Architects - Create an architecture modeling

language

13 May 22-24, 2007


SOA Solution ProvidersMake it clear

• Product companies grab market and mind-share by defining the market themselves. – As solution providers compete, they try to define the market by creating new terms and including

differentiating capabilities in their own products. – Until there are a few de facto SOA solutions, the product vendors will thrash to become the dominant

provider. • A few examples:

– TIBCO has added support for creating AJAX Web applications with their General Interface platform – LogicBlaze has included the LifeRay portal in its FUSE SOA solution – IBM's has added a vast array of software from business modeling to identity management to portals to

its WebSphere application server to its SOA suite• If almost anything can be included in an SOA platform, then the term becomes synonymous

with “infrastructure” • From a solution perspective, SOA is about middleware. It is about message queues,

orchestration and transformation. • Providers should compete to be the best SOA middleware available by offering:

– The best administrative interface– The easiest installation– The most comprehensive documentation and support– Superior quality of service– Best adherence to standards

• Not by offering Kitchen Sinks

SOA Solution Providers Standards BodiesUniversitiesConsultantsIT OrganizationsSOA Architects

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14 May 22-24, 2007


Standards BodiesKeep it Simple! It may already be too late…

BPEL

ebXML JBI

WS-CDL WS-Coordination

WS Addressing JAAS

JACC WS-I BSP

WS-Security

WS-SX

ebSOA

SCA

SDO

SOA-RMASAP

JMX WSDM WS-CAF

WS-I RSP

WSRF

WSRM WS-RM

WS-RX

WS-TX

WS-Eventing

WS-Notification

EAI

J2EE CAJCA WS-I BP

WSDL

WS-Policy

WS-MetadataExchange

JAXB

JAXP

JAX-WS

WS-I AP

WS-Transfer

SOAP w/Attachments

WS-I AP

WS-Transfer

JAXR

JNDI

UDDI

WS-Discovery

CORBA

DCOM

FWSI

IIOP

Java EE/SE

Jini

JMS

REST

RMI

RPC

SOAP

XML-RPC


>

15 May 22-24, 2007


Standards BodiesKeep it Simple!

Open Groupwww.opengroup.org

End-to-End Large Systems (LDAP, UNIX)

IETFInternet Engineering Task Force

www.ietf.orgHardware, Firmware, Low-Level Protocols

IEEEInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

www.ieee.orgHardware, Firmware, Low-Level Protocols

W3CWorld Wide Web Consortium

www.w3.orgInfrastructure (HTTP, SOAP, SSL)

OASISOrganization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

www.oasis-open.orgIntegration & Interoperability (ebXML, SOA-RM)

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ISOInternational Organization for Standardization

www.iso.org

ITUInternational Telecommunication Union

www.itu.int

IECInternational Electrotechnical Commission

www.iec.ch

UN/CEFACTUnited Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and

Electronic Business www.unece.org

OMGObject Management Group

www.omg.orgMethodology (UML, CORBA, IIOP)

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Endorse Standards

WS-IWeb Services Interoperability Organization

www.ws-i.orgWeb Services (WS-BP, WS-BSP)

OSOAOpen SOA Collaboration

www.osoa.orgLanguage-Neutral SOA Standards (SCA, SDO)

JCPJava Community Process

jcp.orgJava Technology Specifications (J2EE)


>

A Taxonomy of Standards Bodies…

16 May 22-24, 2007


Standards BodiesKeep it Simple! It may already be too late…

TransactionalityebXML Messaging Services

WS-CAF (Web services Composite Application Framework)WS-I RSP (Reliable Secure Profile)

WSRF (Web services Resource Framework)WSRM (Web services Reliability)

WS-RM (Web services ReliableMessaging)WS-RX (Web services Reliable Exchange)

WS-TX (Web services Transaction)

SecurityJAAS (Java Authentication and Authorization Service)

JACC (Java Authorization Contract for Containers)WS-I BSP (Web services Integration Basic Security Profile)

WS-Security / WSSWS-SX (Web services Secure Exchange)

AttachmentsJAXB (Java Architecture for XML Binding)

JAXP (Java API for XML Processing)JAX-WS (Java API for XML-Based Web services)

SOAP Messages with AttachmentsWS-I AP (Web services Integration Attachments Profile)

WS-Transfer

DiscoveryebXML Registry

JAXR (Java API for XML Registries)JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface)

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration)WS-Discovery (Web Services Dynamic Discovery)

EventsWS-Eventing (Web Services Eventing)

WS-Notification (Web Services Notification)

IntegrationEAI (Enterprise Application Integration)

J2EE CA (J2EE Connector Architecture)JCA (Java Connector Architecture)

WS-I BP (Web services Integration Basic Profile)WSDL (Web services Definition Language)

WS-Policy (Web services Policy)WS-MetadataExchange

ManagementASAP (Asynchronous Service Access Protocol)

JMX (Java Management Extensions)WSDM (Web services Distributed Management)

ModelingebSOA (Electronic Business Service Oriented Architecture)

ebXML IIC (Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance)SCA (Service Component Architecture)

SDO (Service Data Objects)Semantic Execution Environment

SOA Adoption BlueprintsSOA-RM (Reference Model for Service Oriented Architecture)

Web services Quality ModelOMG’s BPMI & MDA (Business Process Management Initiative &

Model-Driven Architecture)

OrchestrationBPEL (Business Process Execution Language)

ebXML Business ProcessebXML CPPA (Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement)

JBI (Java Business Integration)WS-BPEL / BPEL4WS (Web services Business Process Execution Language)

WS-CDL (Web services Choreography Description Language)WS-Coordination

WS Addressing (Web services Addressing)

ProtocolCORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture)

DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model)FWSI (Framework for Web services Implementation)

IIOP (Internet Inter-Orb Protocol)Java EE/ Java SE

JiniJMS (Java Message Service)

REST (Representational State Transfer)RMI (Remote Method Invocation) or Java RMI

RPC (Remote Procedure Call)SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

XML-RPC (XML Remote Procedure Call)

Give it a REST(Simplicity is the pathway to adoption)


>

17 May 22-24, 2007


Standards BodiesKeep it Simple • The Java/J2EE community has learned the lesson of complex

standards the hard way– Losing ground to the very simple languages such as PHP, Perl,

Python and Ruby– Java EE 5's goal is to simplify

• SOA seems to be heading down the path of complex and gluttonous standards


>

– Create simple standards that solve 80% of issues

– Tout simple standards and allow users an easy path to SOA adoption – Learn from REST and JaBoWS (or be beaten by them)

18 May 22-24, 2007


Universities & EducatorsTeach Architecture • A new graduate in computer science

does not know what architecture is. There is not a solid understanding of architectural concepts such as patterns, cohesion, encapsulation, loose-coupling or reuse.

• There is little appreciation for the quality of service elements of a system.

• To this audience, SOA is an abstract concept.

• Without understanding the fundamentals of software architecture, the realization that SOA is a pattern of architecture is beyond comprehension.


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19 May 22-24, 2007


Universities & EducatorsTeach Architecture • Organizations and individuals are left to their own devices to teach and learn what

software architecture is. • Too many IT professions do not have the opportunity to learn these fundamentals, so

SOA is perceived as a silver bullet that will fail or just a concept that is out of reach. • SOA will be a disappointment because it can not solve the problems it sets out to

overcome when so many of its users are unaware of the architectural foundation that it is built upon.

• Engineers who understand architecture have the opportunity to see value in SOA. Those who don't, can't – no matter how many SOA products they evaluate.


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20 May 22-24, 2007


Consultants Make SOA relevant to the business (& IT Managers) • Consultants have access to an organization's business

community. If SOA is to reach its potential, business users have to value it. It is the responsibility of SOA consultants to make SOA relevant to this audience.

• Talk business-speak. Not Web services, orchestration, SOAP and BPEL. Don’t alienate or patronize the business community with SOA concepts.

• Make business users care about SOA. Talk about rapid time-to-market, lowering costs though reuse and the ability to enable business transformation and innovation. Talk about ROI.


>

21 May 22-24, 2007


Consultants Make SOA relevant to the business (& IT Managers) • Make business users aware of their own services, the

ones they sponsored. – Name the services using nomenclature relevant to the

business. – Have the business sponsors help in the definition of their

services.– Model services graphically, in a way the business community

can understand and participate in – so they can make a poster and brag about the ones they created.


>

22 May 22-24, 2007


IT OrganizationsMove beyond proof-of-concepts & think beyond locally • IT departments have started using SOA

– The major SOA initiatives have been for individual, stand-alone applications.

– The enterprise initiatives have mostly taken the form of proof-of-concepts and SOA strategies or governance-related repositories.

• Building enterprise SOA strategies may be the wrong way to go– Continue to use SOA locally, but try to reach out to other

departments to see if services can be shared.


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– And even if SOA never becomes an enterprise concept because crossing P&L barriers is difficult, use it across your sphere of influence.

23 May 22-24, 2007


SOA ArchitectsCreate an architecture modeling language • Would a database engineer start without a ERD

model?• Would an object oriented architect start without an

OO-Diagram?• With what standard artifact does the enterprise

architect start with?

SOA Solution Providers Standards BodiesUniversitiesConsultantsIT OrganizationsSOA Architects>

– We must re-invent the wheel every time!

24 May 22-24, 2007


SOA ArchitectsCreate an architecture modeling language


How do you draw your

architecture?

25 May 22-24, 2007


SOA ArchitectsCreate an architecture modeling language • We should all use a standard way to represent

architecture• We all use:

– Tiers– Components/Modules/Services– Patterns– Data– Functions/Procedures/Methods

• But we all represent them differently. No wonder applications have such a hard time integrating across an organization.

• This is too much for SOA to overcome on its own• Maybe your organization can adopt a standard blueprint

template given there is no good public standard


26 May 22-24, 2007


So please help out…

• There is plenty of talk about SOA, but not enough action.

• SOA may still be emerging, but SOA still could go the way of data centralization, object-oriented databases and so many other technologies that could not live up to their expectation.

• SOA is a great advancement in architecture. – Most software engineers know that there is something

alluring about SOA, but just what it is may seem elusive. – It is the responsibility of the people in the SOA community to

help, to make SOA accessible and relevant.

27 May 22-24, 2007


Thank YouThank YAdam MichelsonDirector of SOA and Enterprise ArchitectureOptaros, Inc.Contact Information:617 227-1855 [email protected]

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