Understanding and implementing SOA in a middleware environment

Central to many SOA converts' business processes is WS-CDL (Web Services Choreography Description Language), an XML-based language that describes peer-to-peer collaborations of participants by defining their interaction and overall behaviour.

There are several other Web Services languages in common usage in the SOA community but, according to Mark Little, SOA Development Manager within RedHat's JBoss division, WS-CDL is one of the best options for any company looking to develop an SOA methodology.

WS-CDL, he argues, allows IT managers to define interoperable and peer-to-peer collaborations between any type of participant regardless of the supporting platform or programming model used by the implementation of the hosting environment.

As such, he says, it allows the easy development of an SOA model, without the user needing to know how the specific assets function in their respective environment.



SOA engenders business efficiency

Against this backdrop, Little says that the important thing to realise with SOA modelling is that its use engenders business efficiency.

As a starting point, he explains, it allows managers to take a holistic view of their IT resource and, if the need for integration of a new IT system arises - perhaps as a result of a merger or acquisition - then the process can run quite smoothly.

In the shorter term, meanwhile, SOA modelling allows IT managers to respond quickly to changing market conditions.

This, says Little, is particularly appropriate to the current `credit crunch' situation which is forcing many companies to dramatically change their expansion plans and even downscale some of their operations.

Despite what some experts say, SOA is far more than simply taking a modular approach to programming - it creates a multi-dimensional flowchart model of the business IT process of a typical organisation that can be represented on-screen on a drill-down basis.

According to Little, it can also - and this is a major plus for those companies operating a legacy or semi-integrated set of IT systems - be used on a distributed platform.

And finally, he notes, it engenders better management planning since it allows all members of the IT team plus, with a little education, the management team, to understand how the various IT systems interact within an organisation and/or group. Tags: EDI, SOA, business intelligence, business process management