This book is for anyone in the business world or in the public sector who needs to make sense of the new emerging standards for virtually all major information technology decisions. For business professionals, this book is meant to explain and clarify—in business terms—the way web services and SOA work in a business setting. For IT professionals, the book provides a business-oriented overview of SOA.
The book is organized around the two critical areas necessary in realizing an enterprise SOA: technology and people. The nature of SOA is integrative; by definition, SOA pushes boundaries. Enterprise SOA cuts across multiple lines of business and technological disciplines. In the book this is amply illustrated through the presentation of the Titan Insurance case study, an up-close look at an insurance company that is suffering from the IT aftermath of a troubled merger.
In addition to an Introduction that sets out the parameters of Titan Insurance, and provides the back story, the book consists of two parts:
Part 1 “Understanding the technology of enterprise SOA” delves into the technological aspects of web services, as well as other technological issues that underlie the enterprise SOA. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 provide a broad overview of web services, how they work, and what they can do for your business. Chapter 4 introduces the concept of the service-oriented architecture. Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 explore how the enterprise SOA changes the terrain of enterprise application integration, software development, business-to-business commerce, business process management, and real-time operations. Chapters 9 and 10 introduce the extremely important discussions of security and management of enterprise SOA. Chapters 11 and 12 look at SOA networks and utility computing, two deployment scenarios that are likely to be on your horizon if you are considering an SOA.
Part 2 “Understanding the people and process of enterprise SOA, returns to the Titan case in full depth and provides a thorough look at the political, personal, and technological factors that arise when implementing an enterprise SOA at a real company. Chapter 13 looks at realizing Titan’s wish list for its SOA and begins to sort out how to deal with the individual players involved in the process. Chapter 14 continues with a description of how we achieved consensus among the players about how to pursue an effective SOA. Chapter 14 also introduces the “four P’s”—people, pilot, plan, and proceed—my suggested four-stage process for best practices in enterprise SOA. Chapters 15 and 16 go into more depth on how the training and pilot planning process works. In addition, these chapters outline a best practices approach to identifying the applications in an enterprise that are best suited for exposure as web services, a process I call service discovery. Chapter 17 examines platform selection and establishment of project goals and measurements of success. Chapter 18 concludes the book with a look at how Titan Insurance has moved forward with its SOA plan.
In the illustrations used in this book, several images appear repeatedly, representing typical situations that occur in corporate information technology. The following is meant to serve as a guide to the graphics and symbols you will find as you read on.
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Windows or Linux-based machine or server | |
Mainframe computer |
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Modern rack-mounted server | |
Desktop PC used by individual user |
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Proprietary interface between systems, represented by “lock and key” image | |
Large, modern UNIX or Sun server |
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Database | |
Web service |
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Legacy systems, including minicomputers | |
Enterprise application integration solution |
Purchase of Understanding Enterprise SOA includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the authors and from other users. To access the forum and subscribe to it, point your web browser to www.manning.com/pulier. This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you are registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct on the forum.
Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialog between individual readers and between readers and the authors can take place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the authors, whose contribution to the AO remains voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking the authors some challenging questions lest their interest stray!
The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website for as long as the book is in print.
Eric Pulier Founder and Executive Chairman of SOA Software and a widely recognized pioneer and visionary in the world of information technology. Named one of 30 e-Visionaries by VAR Business, Eric is a featured speaker at industry conferences and events and a member of the IBM’s UDDI Advisory Community. He leads SOA Software’s trailblazing efforts to develop breakthrough solutions for the management of XML Web Services, working with such clients as Toyota, US Steel, Hewlett Packard, and Charles Schwab. Eric earned his BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Hugh Taylor Vice President of Marketing at SOA Software and the author of numerous white papers and articles on SOA, as well as the book, The Hollywood Job Hunter’s Survival Guide. Hugh earned his BA, Magna Cum Laude, and MBA from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
The figure on the cover of Understanding Enterprise SOA is a “Bosniac,” or an inhabitant of Bosnia, the westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire and part of the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The illustration is taken from a collection of costumes of the Ottoman Empire published on January 1, 1802, by William Miller of Old Bond Street, London. The title page is missing from the collection and we have been unable to track it down to date. The book’s table of contents identifies the figures in both English and French, and each illustration bears the names of two artists who worked on it, both of whom would no doubt be surprised to find their art gracing the front cover of an information technology book?two hundred years later.
The collection was purchased by a Manning editor at an antiquarian flea market in the “Garage” on West 26th Street in Manhattan. The seller was an American based in Ankara, Turkey, and the transaction took place just as he was packing up his stand for the day. The Manning editor did not have on his person the substantial amount of cash that was required for the purchase and a credit card and check were both politely turned down. With the seller flying back to Ankara that evening the situation was getting hopeless. What was the solution? It turned out to be nothing more than an old-fashioned verbal agreement sealed with a handshake. The seller simply proposed that the money be transferred to him by wire and the editor walked out with the bank information on a piece of paper and the portfolio of images under his arm. Needless to say, we transferred the funds the next day, and we remain grateful and impressed by this unknown person’s trust in one of us. It recalls something that might have happened a long time ago.
The pictures from the Ottoman collection, like the other illustrations that appear on our covers, bring to life the richness and variety of dress customs of two centuries ago. They recall the sense of isolation and distance of that period—and of every other historic period except our own hyperkinetic present.
Dress codes have changed since then and the diversity by region, so rich at the time, has faded away. It is now often hard to tell the inhabitant of one continent from another. Perhaps, trying to view it optimistically, we have traded a cultural and visual diversity for a more varied personal life. Or a more varied and interesting intellectual and technical life.
We at Manning celebrate the inventiveness, the initiative, and, yes, the fun of the computer business with book covers based on the rich diversity of regional life of two centuries ago - brought back to life by the pictures from this collection.