<<Anne Thomas Manes' "SOA is dead"
<http://apsblog.burtongroup.com/2009/01/soa-is-dead-long-live-services.html>
post back at the beginning of the year sparked quite a debate, which is
still going strong. On the Yahoo SOA group, the question was asked on
exactly what Anne meant by SOI, or Service-Oriented Integration. Here's
my response:
SOI, service oriented integration, is probably best stated as WSOI- Web
Services Oriented Integration. It's simply the act of taking the same
integration points that arise in a project and using web services or
some other XML over HTTP approach to integrate the systems. Could this
constitute a service-oriented application architecture? Absolutely, but
in my mind, there is at best incremental benefits in this approach
versus some other integration technology.
Because the scope is a single application, it's unlikely that any
ownership domains beyond the application itself were identified, so
there won't be anyone responsible for looking for and removing other
redundant service implementations. Because the scope of the services
involved didn't change, only the technologies used, it's unlikely that
the services will have any greater potential for reuse than they would
with another integration technology except that XML/HTTP will be more
interoperable, than say, Java RMI, if that's even a concern. To me, SOA
must be applied at something larger than a single application to get
anything better than these incremental gains. Services should be defined
along ownership domains that create accountability for driving the
redundancy out of the enterprise where appropriate.
This is why an application rationalization effort or application/service
portfolio management is a critical piece of being successful. If it's
just a "gut feel" that there is a lot of waste in the IT systems,
arbitrary use of a different integration technology won't make that go
away. Only working to identify the areas of redundancy/waste, defining
appropriate ownership domains, and then driving out the redundancy
through the use of services will make a significant difference.>>
You can read this at: http://www.biske.com/blog/
Gervas
