Understanding and implementing SOA in a middleware environment
16 September, 2008
And, perhaps more importantly, it allows IT staff to slot in and integrate quite disparate computing functions such as when companies acquire each other, merge or similarly evolve.
The use of EDI (electronic data interchange) to allow disparate IT systems to interact with each other under SOA is an important feature, as it gives companies the ability to allow third-party firms to interact with their IT resources without having to recode their respective IT systems.
It also allows cross-checking and validation of data between systems allowing, for example, a customer of one company in a financial services group to open an account with another in the same group, with the minimum of fuss, and link the two accounts as part of a cross-selling portfolio.
Cross-selling is one of the major advantages of SOA in the modern IT environment. It allows, for example, an airline to cross-sell - with permission-based exchange of data - hotels and car rental add-ons to their flights.
British Airways, for example, uses SOA-enabled technology to allow it to cross-sell hotels, car rental and other travel-related services on an integrated basis via its main Web portal.
Look closely at other e-commerce-enabled Web portals and you will see SOA weaving its magic to make life easier for the consumer, as well as maximising business efficiencies and helping to minimise IT costs.
SOA implementation in the real world
Assuming that you've read this far and are attracted to the idea of being able to future-proof your overall IT systems against the hurly-burly of modern acquisitions and mergers, as well as keeping costs under control, how to you effectively implement SOA?
The process is not as difficult or nebulous as some experts make out, as SOA modelling allows management to build applications out of software services.
These services - which can be quite different (e.g. a flight booking with one airline and a hotel booking with another company) - have no program code calls between them. They are two separate programs running on two distinct computer systems.
The use of EDI (electronic data interchange) to allow disparate IT systems to interact with each other under SOA is an important feature, as it gives companies the ability to allow third-party firms to interact with their IT resources without having to recode their respective IT systems.
It also allows cross-checking and validation of data between systems allowing, for example, a customer of one company in a financial services group to open an account with another in the same group, with the minimum of fuss, and link the two accounts as part of a cross-selling portfolio.
Cross-selling is one of the major advantages of SOA in the modern IT environment. It allows, for example, an airline to cross-sell - with permission-based exchange of data - hotels and car rental add-ons to their flights.
British Airways, for example, uses SOA-enabled technology to allow it to cross-sell hotels, car rental and other travel-related services on an integrated basis via its main Web portal.
Look closely at other e-commerce-enabled Web portals and you will see SOA weaving its magic to make life easier for the consumer, as well as maximising business efficiencies and helping to minimise IT costs.
SOA implementation in the real world
Assuming that you've read this far and are attracted to the idea of being able to future-proof your overall IT systems against the hurly-burly of modern acquisitions and mergers, as well as keeping costs under control, how to you effectively implement SOA?
The process is not as difficult or nebulous as some experts make out, as SOA modelling allows management to build applications out of software services.
These services - which can be quite different (e.g. a flight booking with one airline and a hotel booking with another company) - have no program code calls between them. They are two separate programs running on two distinct computer systems.
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