asked at a recent conference, "What do you think we should do about SOA?"
He notes that, "weirdly, nobody had asked me before, and I could find
only one answer: 'Don't do anything. SOA may have meant something once
but it's just vendor bulls*** now.'"
Wow. Bray is suggesting that vendors have hijacked the set of
initatives intended to make our jobs and systems simpler. And, in the
process, brought us more complexity. Interesting that he advocates
doing nothing about SOA right now many are saying 'do something,
anything, just get started!'
Agreed, there is far too much hype around SOA, to the point where the
term almost isn't being taken seriously. Yes, the bullsugar is really
piling up higher and deeper. But SOA does offer a simpler,
standardized way to surface and integrate back-end applications, while
at the same time achieving reuse avoiding duplication of effort across
the enterprise. Ironically, if successfully deployed, SOA is
anti-vendor serum that could free companies from vendor lock-in and
forced upgrades.
Bray's explanation for his dramatic pronouncement: "Looking back, what
happened was, certain software architects were uncomfortable with the
framing that goes with the words 'Web services'; maybe because people
think anything with 'Web' in the name should be simple and lightweight
and easy to set up. Thus SOA, which is so much more Enterprisey."
"Me, I want to go the other way. The crucial point is that Web-like
things should be simple and lightweight and easy to set up; so I think
the 'Web' part of 'Web services' is more important than the 'services'
part."
Bray then goes on to say that "SOA isn't the future, 'Web style' is."
And what is Web style? Essentially, the REST model (XML over HTTP),
Bray said. "It might be helpful to remember what the goal is, what
we're trying to accomplish. We want to build applications that work
across networks, where the networks have unpredictable scale and
performance and reliability, and the computers in the networks aren't
all the same. That's all."
In a response to Tim Bray's pronouncement, Loek Bakker says maybe Bray
is getting a little too cynical, and there's a place for both SOA and
Web Style.
Bakker says that while he does agree with Bray that "simplicity is a
virtue when working with the Web," he takes Bray to task for
suggesting Web Style services meet the same needs as SOA services.
"The Web Style kind of services Tim speaks about are fundamentally
different from services you will usually use within an SOA . WS-*
services and REST services are not competing, they are complementary.
Web Style serves another purpose than SOA. Consumer-facing services
have other QoS requirements than high-volume, cross-platform A2A
transaction services. One service needs to be simple and flexible,
while another service should seamlessly integrate with different
platforms. Different requirements ask for different services, which in
turn ask for different implementations. That is the reality of today's
IT world.">>
You can find this blog at:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=597
Gervas
SPONSORED LINKS
| Computer software | Computer aided design software | Computer job |
| Soa | Service-oriented architecture |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "service-orientated-architecture" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
