[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Why do we need SOA? (proposal for Introduction text)
Martin, I think sometimes a discussion ends abruptly when someone captures enough of the essence and we're not ready to delve into the specifics. I agree wholeheartedly with answering the "why do we care?" question and I like many of your ideas and would quibble with others. Personally, I figured you'll make sure these ideas are added if they are missing from the first editors' draft. Right now, I'm looking forward to seeing that first draft so I can start thinking about what we have right, wrong, or somewhere in between. To that end, I'd better finish writing my sections :-) Ken On May 8, 2005, at 12:24 AM, Smith, Martin wrote: > List - - > > I sent essentially this same message in the thread "[soa-rm] When Is > An SOA Really An SOA?" a while back, but got no response. Thought > I'd try again to see if no-one noticed it or no-one liked it . . . > > I'm proposing we include something like the following in the > Introduction. As several people have observed, we all tended to jump > right in to the details of "what is an SOA" without nailing down the > answer to the "why should I [the reader] care?" question. As we > learned in the f2f discussion, many of us on the TC care because it's > our job to explain to others why we all seem to think we need this > 'SOA' thing (other than that it keeps being in the news!) I'm > guessing that if we can understand why SOA has become a buzzword, > we'll clarify the "essential definition" question. > > So, here's what I think is driving SOA: > > "The SOA concept has emerged in response to the need for an approach > to application architecture that is well adapted to the Internet > environment. The Internet has revolutionized personal communications > with e-mail, and "B-to-C" transactions with the World-Wide Web. > Following the exploitation path of other technologies, the Internet > may be expected to have a similar revolutionary effect on "B-to-B" > transactions - - automating system-to-system exchanges - - and this > domain may eventually be several times larger in scale that the > "B-to-C" space. > > The characteristics of the Internet environment to which the SOA > concept responds are: > > 1. Multiple management domains.--Business or other entities > "on the 'Net" each have their own set of policies and procedures, and > they are legal peers so there is little or no "top down governance" in > the environment; > > 2. Heterogeneous technologies, semantics and processes; > 3. A very large and dynamic "marketplace" of potential > service providers and consumers.--Unlike the environment within a > single organization, there may be many alternative providers of a > computing service, and available services may change on a > minute-by-minute basis; > > 4. Lack of standard context.--Within a single organization, > there is normally a body of "well-known" information about what > resources are available, how they may be obtained, what standards or > conventions they follow, specific interface details, reliability of > the resource, payment requirements, if any, etc. In the environment of > a single computer, the unknowns are even fewer. Because of the size > and diversity of the Internet, obtaining this information is a much > larger problem. > > 5. Lack of infrastructure services.--The Internet provides > some basic services, but on a "best-efforts" basis. Thus issues like > quality-of service and security require must be addressed more > explicitly than in single-computer or local-network environments. > > Application architectures that call themselves "SOA" provide a > solution to these issues of the Internet environment. There is nothing > to prevent implementing an SOA within a local network, on a single > computing platform, or even in a non-technical environment like a > human household, but the need for SOA is driven by the opportunity for > exploiting the worldwide connectivity provided by the Internet." > > Martin > > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Harby [mailto:jharby@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 12:05 PM > To: soa-rm@lists.oasis-open.org > Subject: Re: [soa-rm] When Is An SOA Really An SOA? > > This seem to be an issue for defining "Reference Model". Does this > reference model provide a litmus test for architectures to determine > whether or not they follow SOA? > > On 5/5/05, Chiusano Joseph <chiusano_joseph@bah.com> wrote: >> This question has been on my mind for quite some time, and I would >> like now >> to put it in the context of our in-process RM. >> >> In the past, I have pondered the following more specific question >> (please >> note that this is all scoped to Web Services-based SOA for ease of >> explanation): >> >> If I have 2 Web Services that communicate, do I have an SOA? >> >> We can say "certainly not!". One can do point-to-point integration >> with Web >> Services just as easily (to a certain degree) as without, with >> redundant Web >> Services rather than shared Web Services (a violation of one of the >> foundational tenets of SOA, which is shared services). >> >> Now let's say that we have 2 Web Services that each conform to the SOA >> Architectural Model in Figure 1 of our most recent draft. There is a >> data >> model, a policy, a contract, etc. >> >> Add to that our definition of SOA on line 470, in which we >> (correctly) state >> that SOA is a form of Enterprise Architecture, which (at least in my >> mind) >> implies enterprise-level benefits. >> >> Q: Given the last scenario above (2 Web Services that each conform to >> the >> SOA Architectural Model ) and our definition of SOA: Is this scenario >> large-scale enough that it *really* meets our definition? IOW, how >> large-scale does an "instance" that conforms to our RM have to be to >> yield >> benefits on an enterprise scale? Do we need to stipulate something >> regarding >> this for our RM? >> >> Joe >> >> >> >> Joseph Chiusano >> >> Booz Allen Hamilton >> >> Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com >> >> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------ Ken Laskey MITRE Corporation, M/S H305 phone: 703-983-7934 7515 Colshire Drive fax: 703-983-1379 McLean VA 22102-7508
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]