Service Oriented Architecture

Introduction: Defining SOA

Service oriented architecture is a reliable software architecture that generates many positives for business activities. This software design principle is implemented into many organizations to connect multiple clients with the wide range of business functions. Service oriented architecture is becoming more popular among enterprises that will eventually become enthused by the benefits and importance this application has to offer. SOA is essentially a cluster of services that take part in communication with one another. It’s important to become acquainted with the definition of services. First of all the service portion of the architecture includes the key components of software code that’s shared throughout the architecture. The service part of SOA is referred to the self reliant function that does not need to obtain dependence from other services. SOA can be used in conjunction with web services. The primary functions of both SOA and web services are to make the SOA more mainstream for users with productive initiatives, in result that will make it more useful for web services. Web services are centrally concerned with technology specifications, while the service oriented architecture pinpoints the software importances.

Service oriented architecture is a viable asset to the technology world for bringing value to those businesses that participate in applying this form of architecture. The corporate society benefits with the utilization of SOA which allows for quick time delivery. SOA delivers a widespread of business objectives to reoccurring web services at higher rates of efficiency. The intercommunication factor during the business processes with several clients will essentially cut lead time and the use of man power. While technology is rapidly changing, there are new developments bringing SOA to the forefront of the information technology marketplace. The integration of old and new business practices enable SOA to form advanced business objectives while generating new external relationships.

Benefits with SOA vs. EDA

The benefits of service oriented architecture will help become more united with the event driven architecture. These services can be compared to one another with their unique functions that tie into business. Integration struggles with the wasteful offline running business factors. EDA is set out for those lengthy business procedures while SOA is ideal for the current time and request changes. SOA focuses on a request and EDA posts events with the use of past processing. The competitive advantages of SOA are requesting quick replies, receiving the data, and logging off when the reply is recognized. EDA waits for the delivery of requests to be made and releases the resources in a timely manner. SOA and EDA architectures bring numerous business advantages to the forever improving level of technological advances.

SOA’s Advantages

Furthermore the service oriented architecture benefits include various concepts in business applications including the development and maintenance practices. The benefits that are carried over to enterprise information technology are mentioned as the successful development of software tools. Another important advantage includes terminating the thought of disposing business components by reusing them in the implementation of further business practices. The development stages require the improvement of tools and sorting the most effective practices to allow the mainstream of new software elements. SOA’s primary competitive advantages are those businesses that do not include this form of software architecture with their daily business procedures.

Formation of SOA structure consists of several layers that are paired up with their designated roles. The major assets to the company are those developers that learn every individual layer as well as the functions that are used to construct those layers. Lower level developers will maintain the same skills that the more experienced and qualified specialists attain. Developers have the knowledge imbedded through learning the structure of this system and will participate in the feedback for the need of further software innovations.

The key components of the service oriented architecture allows better return on investments, code mobility, added security features, advanced testing procedures, and improved maintainability. In the process of creating the software, the company can organize those important key business domains. These domains include an inventory service that will provide benefits to the company in two ways. The first way is that the SOA will store the business activities for future purposes and reference material. Secondly, the implementation of a controlled cash flow system such as a credit card authorization service will be present through several future applications. Essentially these two main aspects can add returns for the company and add a level of value to this investment.

SOA service allows code mobility to play a key role in the flexibility of the system. This particular type of service will not be affected if removed from one provider to another. The mobility factor linked with SOA will be beneficial for businesses to satisfy their customers with the capabilities to travel. The security factor with SOA is a necessity due to the network interface being used with a vast number of applications. In the past, companies did not implement database security because of the level of difficulty and complexity. The use of security with services became prominent in the later years because of the introduction of multi-level applications and clients. Other key components of the SOA include testing procedures and the improvement of maintainability. The testing process is mostly done by unit tests that are conducted by developers. In the unit test process, test suites are the primary test components that can verify the effectiveness of applications that are running independently. The level of defects will stay relatively low with the presence of unit testing and quality testing, during the program build. Maintainability can be associated with the ability to pinpoint the defects and then start the fixing process. The level of maintainability introduces the factor of scalability. Users of the program can locate the applications and can send requests to other clients without the need of approval from the service oriented architecture.

IBM Markets SOA

One of the vendors that markets the service oriented architecture is IBM. There are many leading efforts that IBM uses to promote this service for other companies to indulge in. IBM compiled a number of marketing tools and training programs for the initial purpose of spreading the word with the SOA software. In addition, there are seven thousand four- hundred business associates working on the new technology. The sales increased forty-eight percent and there was a large estimated sum of ten thousand sales leads in 2009.

SOAsocial is a marketing campaign that IBM uses to focus on reaching out to partners and consumers. The social network is a forum that allows individuals to communicate about issues, activities, and new advances. Marketing with the addition of social networking, will reduce the promotional costs by one tenth from the previous year. IBM’s further additions to the marketing campaign of SOA include; a live chat, SOA frameworks, role playing, and sandbox. The live chat feature is a part of the marketing social network that will help with solutions when questions arise during the browsing in the online business catalog. With IBM expanding their SOA frameworks portfolio, this will allow users to adjust their current applications. Furthermore, for SOA training purposes, the online Innov8 role playing game places the employee in situations that consists of customer service scenarios. Out of several of IBM’s marketing concepts, the online program known as Sandbox might be the most beneficial marketing ploy. Sandbox allows the customer to explore other vendor’s SOA services and to expand their horizons during the decision making process. Vendor Implementation of SOA

The Catalina Marketing Corporation’s implementation of the SOA service into their company achieved positive outcomes towards their business activities by increasing the levels of productivity. The background on the Catalina Marketing Corporation consists of producing mass quantities of coupons for supermarket shoppers. In order to cache all of the information with the vast range of coupons, Catalina Marketing constructed one of the largest databases in the globe, holding six hundred billion rows of data. Catalina sends out an estimated twenty million coupons daily. SOA will play a key role in overcoming the problems associated with the process errors. Not only to improve operations, but the Catalina Marketing Corporation was suffering from losses in productivity and relying on constant rework to their database systems. Instead of Catalina using several databases, SOA implemented a library with many business layers. Catalina will have a SOA architect for inputting new data and services in the library. Another task for the architect is to reference previous material for data tracking needs. In the implementation process at Catalina, it was easier to build their service layers due to the universal compatibility that the Service Oriented Architecture has to offer. The company was impressed that there would no longer be a need for two formats carrying out the same job.

During the implementation phase of SOA, there had to be adjustments with Catalina’s IT and Operations departments. Both departments have to work together on projects that will be accessible while using the new service. The technology shift enables the teams to increase the levels of interactivity while fulfilling the needs of an extensive client base.

Music Industry and SOA

Further implementations of service oriented architecture are included in music industry’s promotional services. The company known as Artist 2 Market uses the SOA service to accomplish their promotional objectives for the large record labels. Artist 2 Market takes advantage of using to SOA service to build multiple applications while reusing the current software. This promotional firm’s main initiative is to become associated with the social networking platforms. The majority of the social networking sites are easily accessible through mobile devices that have internet capability. Becoming more involved in this new technology brings benefits to the musicians by establishing a better connection with the fans. Artists can post updates about future tours, album releases, and photos. Not only does the music industry benefit from the SOA implementation but also those promotional firms. With the use of SOA the company’s can keep the cost margin down while contributing to a more advanced form of advertisement.

SOA and Hire a Hero

The company known as Hire a Hero helps the veterans seek employment opportunities after their return from their military services. Hire a Hero’s main goal is to find veterans occupations that will be beneficial to their transition into civilian life. Service oriented architecture enabled the company lower their costs by building a new successful architecture. With the supporting efforts from a number of vendors this nonprofit organization was able to raise enough money to cover the cost of the strategic implementations. SOA not only improved the level of business organization, but the addition of social networking software allowed Hire a Hero to not rely on a costly technical team. This quote from the company’s executive director Brac Selph expresses the positive reactions with the service oriented architecture. “I’ve got to be real frank; I wasn’t even aware of the term SOA, but it certainly fits really well with what we are doing, particularly the idea of connecting the various systems to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”

SOA with Military and Space

The military admires the key advantages that the service oriented architecture has to offer. The immediate responsiveness of the program and the higher level of efficiency allow the military to carry out their operational objectives with an effective outcome. While on the battlefield there has to be organization with the amount of equipment being utilized. SOA is an excellent architecture format that can both keep track of the weaponry and manage those crucial life threatening operations. Not only on the battlefield but the Navy battleships rely on the use of this service for controlling sensors and vital weather data. This plays a key role in the weapon operations. For instance the weather data needs to be accurate across the broad range of weather factors. This system is ideal for the tracking and the sensory portion of the military internal systems. For several years the use of satellites allowed the constant flow of communication and weather information for both military personnel and meteorologists. Throughout the years, these assets became more and more valuable because of the data resources that are collected. In conjunction with the high volume of satellites in orbit, the sensory programs need to be updated to be performing at an efficient pace. The necessary information that constantly has to be monitored is the tracking of particular satellites and being able to access the statuses of those satellites. With technology constantly moving forward at a rapid rate, these sensory management systems need to be updated with new service architecture. Both the Space Awareness and Space Defense Operation centers are working with a combined effort to be capable of sharing critical space data through SOA. The primary concern is being able to secure the proprietary information that may include Department of Defense operations while allowing the access of certain individuals to overlook the gathered information.

SOA’s Future Supply Chain Success with SAP

Service oriented architecture offers benefits for the information technology and supply chain segments in business. The future trends that are being projected in a supply chain sense are linked with complexity of new products. Therefore the supply chain is expanding with an increasing amount of suppliers to fulfill the diversified industry. Companies are constantly entering the global marketplace and are in high demand for an architecture service that will be able to withstand the level of complexity.

SAP’s version of the SOA that is centrally focused to supply chains, expresses flexibility throughout the use of three major layers. The first layer known as the top presentation layer focuses on the practitioner level of the supply chain. This top layer includes various presentation applications that are able to be modified by a broad spectrum of users within the chain. The middle or second layer includes the composition aspect of the supply chain that stores all the appropriate business processes in a database. With the implementation of the reuse of code is another way to improve the business process while condensing the current time constraints. Lastly, the bottom layer centers itself on the main capabilities of the integration system. The main aspect of this layer is to provide data for the services within the enterprises. The plus side for this layer is that the data does not need to be interpreted with a sophisticated and in depth manner. SOA regulates the level of cost that is linked with the integration of layers in the enterprise. One main factor that contributes to lowering the cost involves the reuse of the interfaces. The SAP allows the businesses to collaborate pertinent information with the suppliers. The use of communications with the business and supplier are able to add efficiency and control the lead time. SOA is viewed as a huge asset for supply chain management by keeping up with the rapid business procedures. Building the reusable software enables the current interfaces to consistently become adapted to the supply chain processes.

Another future goal of the SAP system is to allow the SOA to permit the user to be able to customize the user interface. The improvement of the user experience focuses on modifying the data in order to become practical for the other users in the supply chain. Essentially the teams that will benefit the most with the customization of user interfaces are the sales staff. The team’s effort for developing a successful system will include the efforts of updating the product descriptions and quantities. The adaptation for future supply chains is one of the most essential goals with SAP. In order to achieve success with the constant flow of competition, the users need to develop a high skill level to position them ahead of the market.

Future Trends and Impacts of SOA

In order to project the future trends of service oriented architecture, the current implementations have to be analyzed. While looking at the current status of success with the architecture, the focus point can be shifted to enhancing the program’s performance levels. Some future impacts for the service oriented architecture include cloud computing and Web 2.0. Both of these types of computing services have reached capability levels that are parallel to those of the service oriented architecture.

One of SOA’s top competitors is known as cloud computing. This recent software service is able to be delivered in a quick manner. Cloud computing allows the company to rent the software or pay with a subscription based concept. This type of service focuses on the outstanding costs to implement these types of systems and their main goal is to become a more reasonable priced service in the marketplace. The three dominant types of cloud computing are known as software as a service, infrastructure service, and platform services. The software as a service was introduced in the nineties as a lower cost software provider. Some of the similar capabilities of the software as a service to SOA include the sharing of resources throughout many organizations. The development efforts with the software as a service want to compose a way to lower the costs while increasing the technical portion of the implementation. The cloud computing infrastructure includes several storage services. This function of cloud computing mainly focuses on lowering the cost while providing proficient services to the customer. The platform services developed a way to release application without the need to fine tune the configurations. In some ways this service does not need the amount of preparation because creating a simplistic approach to meeting the appropriate tasks has already been developed. Other than cloud computing there is another type of trend known as Web 2.0 that impacts the service oriented architecture. Web 2.0 relies on both user participation and social networking. An example of this platform is facebook.com, a user friendly interface that allows social interaction between all ages of individuals. Web 2.0 is growing at a fast rate by facilitating a broad range of useful applications.

SOA and WOA

The future of the service oriented architecture needs to shift their concerns for increasing the performance levels. While business is constantly changing at a fast rate, the SOA program has to respond the increasing demand of technology. Service oriented architecture has been present for years and still reveals a lower consumption rate. The future trend of the SOA being overly engineered might result in negative outcomes. One drawback of the engineering is the constant implementations of security platforms. Security regulations and procedures are always changing. This process of always needing change will result in SOA always developing new additions to accommodate the proper security measures.

The WOA or web oriented architecture can help improve those much needed performance levels of SOA. The ability for the service oriented architecture to respond to change with an immediate rate will enhance performance. SOA in some ways needs to develop a more self service approach. Businesses will feel that this architecture is approachable for implementation without the excess amount of preparation. Developing of a faster delivery of service would be using the WOA approach. Instead of going through the extensive process of infiltrating the new service into the organization, the internet can be used as a tool for the speedy delivery. The customer’s wants will include an inexpensive service that is user friendly and a reliable source in problem solving. The up and coming lightweight applications are generating new concepts that will eventually be included in the forefront the enterprise industry. Those concepts that are introduced need to be evaluated by the service oriented architecture. If these effectively innovated web oriented architectures introduce leading concepts to the market SOA will have to shift their direction to fulfill the needs of the businesses.

Reflection of Future Trends

In my opinion the future trend with the service oriented architecture involves becoming more hands on for organizations. SOA reveals positive concepts in the improvement of the business processes. But in order to keep up with the times there has to be changes made to the platform. The customer is going to be comparing their purchase with those that are on the market providing unique features. For instance the web oriented architectures mentioned previously are becoming a more popular software trend. Once those services develop comparable traits linked with service oriented architecture, there might be no longer a demand for this type of service. The confidence level is high because of the technical inputs that are developed to conduct more flexible and successful business. I do feel that businesses that do not have a service oriented architecture should evaluate those businesses that reached high levels of success.

Business is constantly changing and there are always newer strategies that may outperform one another. I think because of the current economic state many businesses are trying to develop their procedures with a cost effective approach. This is where the service oriented architecture becomes present in the assistance of enabling this implementation. I think that the service oriented architecture will be able to link the businesses with the supplier base. If the costs of the development and production process need to be low, the SOA can introduce a positive approach to organize all of the supplier information. In some instances the costs of producing products internally are becoming generally higher; those businesses will shift their direction in the utilization of out sourcing firms. In order to manage the constant flow of information from the supplier to the business, this architecture will allow a framework for all the employees to oversee the business activities. I think that SOA is currently being used with a diverse demand of organizational usage. For instance the space programs, military branches, the music industry, and non-profit organizations all share the need for this valuable asset to perform with the highest level of efficiency to satisfy the necessary client base.

Bibliography

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