Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Implemented correctly, SOAs provide a number of crucial benefits:

• Flexibility to adapt to changing requirements
• Faster time market for new product solutions
• Less expensive development and maintenance costs

Any reasonable book on SOA will tell you this. What they won't tell you is SOA is NOT a silver bullet and you don't get the benefits above for free. Most of these books will also give you simple, contrived examples that rarely match real world environments or the systems that live in them.

In the real world, SOA is a hybrid entity born of:

• legacy systems which do not adapt with changing business requirements
• silo-ed implementations with little or no integration capabilities
• organizations with immature development practices

The hybrid nature of a real SOA is due to the need to maintain some portion of the legacy systems being refitted. All too often, these systems are not well engineered in the first place and lack documentation. Success in these types of projects hinges on preparation and ability to execute. An SOA readiness assessment can uncover missing elements and increase the probability of success while reducing project risk.

A few SOA readiness concerns are (this is not a complete list):

• Established end goal and an SOA roadmap to get there (1-3 year plan)
• Repeatable development processes with agile development cycle
• SOA Governance:
  • Change management processes and an appropriate feedback mechanism
  • Metadata and Service repositories and adequate artifact submission reviews
• Current SOA enabling technology capabilities and skills
• Adoption of SOA development standards and best practices

Our team can help you cover all the bases and make your SOA conversion a success.

Cloud Intelligence, LLC
Email: info@cloudint.com