Unfortunately, I can't remember where I heard this (it may have been Anne Lapkin at the Gartner Web Services Summit), but in a presentation on enterprise architecture, it was emphasized how the architecture should include external partners. I think this is absolutely critical, for all of the obvious reasons that David has presented. It's also not just the new breed of SaaS providers that he mentions, but any external service provider. There are many niche providers in vertical areas, that provide critical computing infrastructure to companies. For example, the company I work for, A.G. Edwards, is working with BETA Systems for systems that support our securities-processing functions (see: http://www.agedwards.com/public/content/sc/aboutage/fy04/gtwy043003.html). It would make sense that our enterprise architecture (and hence, our SOA), should include some elements of BETA Systems. There are aspects of BETA that we must treat as a "black box," but clearly, we shouldn't have our SOA/EA stop at the firewall.
Another example of this was a case study at the Gartner Summit with Rockwell International. Their use of services was for supporting their customers that were currently using a user-facing portal. My colleague had asked me how that was SOA, because he was thinking from an internal viewpoint. I pointed out that the reuse of these services was by their external partners, not by internal clients. This results in savings for Rockwell, since custom services do not need to be created for each client. The migration from a portal to services provides further benefits for their partners in that they can now automate the interaction between the two, or at a minimum, orchestrate the services according to their business processes. Happy partners can only make both companies more successful. I would have preferred if Dave had called this an "Outside-In approach to SOA" rather than "Outside-In SOA." Everyone must define what SOA is to them, and where the most bang for the buck is. For companies whose business model is heavily dependent on being a service provider through technology, it simply makes sense that they are going to look to apply service-oriented principles to their external partner interactions. -tb -----Original Message----- From: Gervas Douglas [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [service-orientated-architecture] Linthicum on "Outside-In" SOA <<It's interesting to think that many of the services we'll leverage within our enterprises won't be created by the enterprise itself, meaning services that are hosted by service providers that we employ on demand. There are many of these examples today, including eBay, Salesforce.com, Amazon.com, and even new startups such as StrikeIron, all looking to make money through the delivery of Web services to those that need them. I call this "Outside-in SOA," and perhaps the most valuable notion of the movement to a more service- oriented world. For many enterprises this is scary stuff, much like the Internet was scary back in the early 90s. However, as we move to "Web 2.0" we are indeed going to find the value of leveraging application services that we had nothing to do with creating, or incurring the cost or the risk for that matter. Clearly, the days of purchasing or developing software as the default solution are behind us, and we're moving to a model where we can mix and match services on-demand, for any business purpose. This notion will provide us with the business agility and value we're finally looking for from IT. However, the concept of Outside-in SOA needs specific enabling technology, layers of software that are able to manage the interaction with outside services, typically Web services, and the internal systems, including semantic, protocol, and security mediation. To date, most of the work has been concentrated on building a SOA using internal systems, not considering the use of service providers. I'm asserting that the patterns of use are very different, and thus require different approaches and technology.>> You can read this at: "http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/linthicum/archives/2005/11/outside- in_soa.php#comments" Gervas Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A.G. Edwards & Sons' outgoing and incoming e-mails are electronically archived and subject to review and/or disclosure to someone other than the recipient. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Most low income homes are not online. Make a difference this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/5UeCyC/BWHMAA/TtwFAA/NhFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/service-orientated-architecture/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
