Re: [soa-rm] Interesting article on SOA and APIs

["Mike Poulin" <mpoulin@usa.com>]

My take is different.

 

1. Patrick Gray (the author) points that it is IT is in the focus and that IT is creating the services, "I have long advocated viewing enterprise IT as a series of business services that IT designs, builds, and maintains." I believe that this is the mistaken statement. In Business Services, IT has nober 2 role if any. A lot of Business Services exist with no IT involvement.

 

2. "Until fairly recently, advocates of this view would generally suggest IT implement Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), a series of design principles that guided how an IT organization designed, built, and maintained applications. Rather than a focus on individual applications, SOA suggested that multiple discrete applications and data sources be combined into services centered around a business process." First, IT is not only one who implements Service-Oriented Architecture

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Laskey

Sent: 05/06/14 09:53 PM

To: Peter F Brown

Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Interesting article on SOA and APIs

 

I understand his distinction but I see a different pattern.  

 

To begin with, every service needs an API or a combination of endpoint and defined information exchange that essentially defines an API.  And, of course, every API provides access under certain circumstances.  So the question cannot be one or the other.

 

It is interesting that the difference noted is really one of control, with services being connected with more stringent control.  Now there is nothing inherent in services that requires this control.  Moreover, I believe the idea of control, under the fancy title of governance, traces back to the day we admitted that dynamic composability was too hard and we had to find a use for all those shining new registries.  The registries were then billed as the ultimate governance tools — follow my rules or I won’t let you into my registry!  The fear of a Wild West of providers giving options and consumers making choices led to long approval processes that did more to paralyze the service ecosystem than make it “run right”. The pushback was then just to post APIs in a less controlled space.

 

So the difference is looking into two mirrors, one full of fingerprints and another with a fine layer of dust.  Which one gives the better reflection?  Take your choice.

 

Ken

-------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Kenneth Laskey
MITRE Corporation, M/S H305          phone: 703-983-7934
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McLean VA 22102-7508

 

On May 6, 2014, at 12:47 PM, Peter F Brown <peter@peterfbrown.com> wrote:

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/soa-vs-apis-to-deliver-it-services-is-there-a-difference-and-does-it-matter

 

 

 

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Peter F Brown   Independent Consultant   CIPP/IT

”Using Information Technologies to Empower and Transform”

 

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Tel: +1.310.694.2278

 

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