OASIS Advances SDO for Uniform SOA Data Handling

["Carol Geyer" <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

** Please link to this release at
http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2007-11-15.php **

OASIS Advances Service Data Objects (SDO) Architecture for Uniform SOA Data
Handling

Adobe, BEA Systems, IBM, Progress Software, SAP, and Xcalia Collaborate on
Approach to Simplify Data Programming in SOA Environments

Boston, MA, USA; 15 November 2007 - OASIS, the international open standards
consortium, has formed a new technical committee to advance the Service Data
Objects (SDO) specification, which is designed to simplify the way in which
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications handle data. Using SDO,
application programmers can uniformly access and manipulate data from
heterogeneous data sources, including relational databases, XML data sources,
Web services, and enterprise information systems. 

"Most of the data programming technologies in use today are specific to a
single type of data source, but in real-world applications, data frequently
comes from a variety of places. As a result, application developers are
burdened by the need to learn a plethora of programming models and data access
APIs," noted Shawn Moe of IBM, convenor of the OASIS SDO Technical Committee.
"By offering a common facility for representing collections of data--regardless
of data source type--SDO gives application developers a more simple, unified
programming model and enables tools to work across heterogeneous data sources
consistently."

"Each type of data source (databases, documents, web services, and enterprise
application systems) exposes a unique set of APIs, protocols, and formats,
increasing the complexity of an application," explained Anne Thomas Manes, Vice
President and Research Director for Burton Group. "A unified data programming
model allows developers to focus on business logic rather than technical
details."

The OASIS SDO Technical Committee will be affiliated with the OASIS Open
Composite Services Architecture (Open CSA) Member Section, where the Service
Component Architecture (SCA) family of specifications is also being developed.
Together, SCA and SDO define a language-neutral programming model that lets
developers of enterprise software fully exploit the benefits of SOA. 

"SDO provides a neutral access path to enterprise data, which is the core of
the customer solution," said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Many
of our members are building exciting tools, data access services and frameworks
which will further integrate SDO with existing and future data access
technologies."

Participation in the OASIS SDO TC remains open to all companies, non-profit
groups, government agencies, academic institutions, and individuals. Archives
of the work will be accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS will
offer a mechanism for public comment. SDO will be offered for implementation on
a Royalty-Free basis. 

Presentations on SDO, SCA, and other SOA-related standards will be the focus of
the upcoming OASIS event, 'Open Standards 2008: Composability within SOA',
which will be held 28 April - 1 May in Santa Clara, California. The deadline
for program submissions is 17 December.

Support for SDO

BEA Systems
"SDO is very important to BEA. It is a standard that can help enable a
service-oriented approach to data integration, which represents a critical
aspect of any comprehensive SOA platform deployment," said Ed Cobb, Vice
President of Emerging Technology and Standards at BEA Systems. 

IBM
"IBM is pleased to see the widespread industry support for the formation of the
SDO Technical Committee. This is consistent with the goal of providing
customers with a truly open, standards based model for SOA solutions. SDO lets
applications access a variety of data sources in a common way, allowing
programmers to focus on business processes rather than different data formats.
Use of SDO and SCA will allow customers to develop dynamic, adaptable SOA
solutions more quickly," said Karla Norsworthy, IBM Vice President of Software
Standards.

Progress Software
"As a longtime OASIS member organization, Progress Software is proud to extend
its support and technical expertise to the OASIS SDO Technical Committee as
inaugural members. As an organization, we are committed to helping the software
development community simplify data programming through the creation and
widespread use of industry standards. We look forward to playing a key role in
helping to define and advance the SDO architecture specifications and API,"
said John Goodson, vice president of product operations for the DataDirect
Technologies division of Progress Software. 

SAP
"Simplification of data programming to be independent of programming languages
and data sources is a fundamental requirement as companies make the shift to an
enterprise services oriented architecture. SDO is making great strides in the
efforts to make this reality, and as a founding member company in the
development of the SDO specifications, SAP is pleased to see the transition of
this effort to OASIS for further refinement and broader adoption of this
technology," said Sanjay Patil, Standards Architect, SAP AG. 


Additional information:

OASIS SDO Technical Committee 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/sdo

OASIS Open CSA Member Section
http://www.oasis-opencsa.org/

Open Standards 2008: Composability within SOA
http://events.oasis-open.org/home/symposium/2008/

SCA Webinar Series: 10-13 Dec 2007
http://www.oasis-open.org/events/webinars/sca-2007.php


About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)
drives the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for the
global information society. A not-for-profit consortium, OASIS advances
standards for SOA, security, Web services, documents, e-commerce, government
and law, localisation, supply chains, XML processing, and other areas of need
identified by its members. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower
cost, stimulate innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free
choice of technology. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants
representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.
http://www.oasis-open.org


Press contact:

Carol Geyer
OASIS Director of Communications
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209 (office)
+1.941.284.0403 (mobile)