My new Computer: an iMac

For years I have dreamed with a Apple Computer. Now this dream came true. I just received my new iMac. The best, powerful and beautiful computer on earth :-). Do not forget that we have BSD behind the MacOS.

Definitively I do not miss the PC+Intel+Windows. Besides this I have the best user interface and the power of Unix (BSD), like this:

The Seven Secrets of SOA Success

Good article about steps to success in a SOA implementation.

There's no doubt that the computing era of Service Oriented Architecture is upon us. Everyone has caught SOA fever (is it S-O-A or SO-AH?) and most Fortune 500s are considering or have already implemented their first set of services.

SOA: Architeture and Modeling (from IBM)

Ali Arsanjani is Chief Architect from IBM (SOA and WebServices center). This article posted in Dec'2004 is still up to date and it is a good start point if you are new in SOA. Starting with the conceptual model of a SOA architectural style, showed in the figure below:



And this is the Ali's vision about the layers in a SOA typical architecture (and believe me it is valid today!):



A good article about the basic SOA principles and components definition.

SOA Terms Definitions

 At Sandy Carter blog I've found another good SOA dictionary. See the definitions for the most common SOA terms:

Service – a repeatable business task represented by a software module deployed on network accessible platforms provided by the service provider. Its interface is described by a service description. It exists to be invoked by or to interact with a service requestor. It may also function as a requestor.
Service Orientation – an approach to integrate business tasks as loosely coupled, linked services
Service Oriented Architecture –An architectural style of the structure of a software system in terms of its components and the services they provide, without regard for the underlying implementation of these components, services and connections between components
Composite application - a set of related & integrated services that support a business process built on an SOA
Components - Definition of a modular unit of functionality, accessed through one or more interfaces. A component may be composed of other components, but a component is not necessarily a service.
Service Component Architecture (SCA) - a set of specifications which describe a model for building applications and systems using a Service-Oriented Architecture. SCA extends and complements prior approaches to implementing services, and SCA builds on open standards such as Web services.
Business Process Management - Covers the full range of application-to-application, inter-application, workflow and person-to-person process management, including process design, automation, management, and continuous improvement.
Service Registry - a searchable registry of service descriptions where service providers may publish their service descriptions. Service requestors may find services and obtain binding information (in the service descriptions) for services during development for static binding or during execution for dynamic binding.

At RedHat in the day that they bought JBOSS

Raleigh, NC, 09-Mar-2006: at this date I visited Red Hat headquarter. Look at me! Guess what... ...this day Red Hat announced that they will buy JBOSS. What a coincidence!

Google, Writely and Web 2.0 Applications

The Web search giant last Thursday confirmed it had bought Upstartle, which produces the hosted word-processing service Writely.

Though a small purchase--Upstartle employed only a handful of people--Google's move is significant because it further highlights the company's interest in Web-based productivity applications, which could be considered an online alternative to Microsoft's dominant Office desktop software.

Yet from this blog, we have a set of Web 2.0 applications:

• Online Calendars: One of the more active areas, with offerings from 30 Boxes, CalendarHub, Trumba, Joyent, Kiko, Planzo and Spongecell.

• Productivity application suites: Full-blown applications bundles offered by the likes of HyperOffice, gOffice and ThinkFree.

• E-mail and collaboration: Examples include Goowy, Zimbra, Meebo (Web-based instant messaging) and Jotspot (hosted Wikis).

• Project management and personal organizers: AirSet, 37Signals.com, Zohoplanner and Stikipad.

• Multimedia social software: Includes sites like the popular Flickr photo sharing service, Riya (photo search), You Tube (video sharing) and Podbop (music podcasting).

Architecture of a Dashboard

Dashboard means more than the simply integration of a myriad of reports, graphics, performance ratio etc, it is a very complicated process. Mr. Britton Manasco in his excellent blog Intelligence Economy.com presents us a Architecture of a Performance DashBoard. It's an interesting point of view that he got from Wayne Eckerson, director of Research and Services for the Data Warehousing Institute. Let me point out some of his thoughts:

...multiple layers in a performance management system:

• Monitoring layer -- uses dashboards, scorecards or alerts to notify users of material changes in the performance of processes and activities.

• Analysis layer -- lets users drill down into exception conditions and explore a problem's root cause using multidimensional analysis.

• Reporting layer -- provides users with detailed operational data (such as a list of defective parts and the customers who received them) so they can take prompt action.

• Planning layer -- lets managers employ the output of their analyses to create plans, models and scenarios, which are then fed back into the monitoring layer and encoded as targets and thresholds

SOA Papers @ Patricia Seybold Group

A excellent source of SOA and Web Services papers. I strongly recommend.

Patricia Seybold Group - Home Page: "Web Services and SOA

Description

Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture

Web Services are only one example of a much larger architectural strategy: using a services-oriented approach to design and to integrate applications. We cover both Web Services and the broader topic of SOA. Savvy IT architects have been using SOA as a design approach for over two decades. We have been chronicling and promoting SOA since the late 1980's, when the same principles were referred to as 'distributed object computing.'

A service is a 'worker' employed to achieve a specific end goal for a 'requestor.' The end goal is small in scope, such as retrieving information, or large in scope, such as executing a business process. The services the worker performs are made visible and accessible to other services and applications using a services API. Web Services use self-describing APIs written in human and machine-readable XML.

We offer a services discovery and classification methodology. Our methodology starts from your customers--by identifying your customers' key scenarios and discovering and classifying the services required to support those scenarios."

SOA Middleware: Upcoming App Servers

SOA major players (aka "vendors") are preparing the next generation Application Servers. See what is comming soon:

• BEA WebLogic 9.2: Will support Eclipse development standards and be easier to use. Expected in April.
  

• IBM WebSphere 6.1: Will have enhanced service-oriented architecture and integration capabilities and be easier to use. Due midyear.
  

• Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3: Will sport improved SOA capabilities and enterprise service bus, and a new business rules engine; will support UDDI business services registry release 3. Slated for midyear.

About IBM/WebSphere:

IBM will try to preserve its market lead when it debuts the next release of its WebSphere Application Server around midyear. IBM execs are tight-lipped about the details of what the next release will offer, but they say it will expand on the company's service-oriented architecture strategy and provide ease-of-use enhancements and improved integration capabilities.

SOA Best Practices: A Conversation with Mark Hapner (Sun Engineer)

This is an interesting interview about the point-of-view from SUN about SOA and SOA-related tecnologies (e.g. WS).

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has arrived, and with it have come a faster application development process and the ability to adapt more flexibly to changing business needs. The Gartner Group predicts that "By 2008, SOA will be a prevailing software engineering practice, ending the 40-year domination of monolithic software architecture." So what is SOA? Basically, it's an IT approach in which applications rely on services available on a network such as the web to facilitate business processes. Implementing an SOA can involve developing applications that use services, making applications available as services so that other applications can use those services, or both.

To get up-to-date on the importance of SOA for Java technology developers, we met with Mark Hapner, Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, who has served as lead architect of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE, formerly known as J2EE), co-lead of the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification, and lead for Java Message Service (JMS). He is currently Sun's chief web services strategist. Hapner also helped create Java Business Integration (JBI) and is Sun's board member on the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I).

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Phil Wainewright wrote this interesting post on his blog about SaaS (Software as a Service). I truly believe in SaaS and I think that this new approach can change our "old ideas" regarding software delivery.
One of the references in SaaS is Amy Wohl; more than an enthusiastic, she is a evangelist! If you believe in software as a service, read these list that Mr. Wainewright prepared and visit Whol`s website:

• Enterprise SaaS
• SaaS versus Free Software
• But How Will We Make Money?
• Is SaaS About New Applications or New Forms of Distribution?
• SaaS versus the Storm
• How Big is an SaaS Customer?
• How to Introduce Users to Software as a Service
• SaaS is Based on Service

Extending the RUP with the Enterprise Unified Process (EUP)

This is the Scott W. Ambler's proposal: extend the RUP, creating the EUP (Enterprise Unified Process), to meet the real-world needs of mid-to-large-sized organizations.

The Rationale:

Thousands of organizations worldwide have adopted the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to help improve their software development processes. But Scott Ambler points out that we need to go even further; the Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) extends the RUP to meet the real-world needs of mid- to large-sized organizations.

Beyond Sw Development:

There is more to the lifecycle of a system than software development. The operation and support of a system after it’s in production are crucial to your success; why bother building the system if you can’t run it? The retirement of a system that is no longer needed or that is to be replaced by another system is also important

The EUP phases are:
1. Inception. During this phase, you achieve stakeholder consensus regarding the objectives for the project and obtain funding;
2. Elaboration. During this phase, you specify requirements in greater detail and prove the architecture for the system;
3. Construction. The focus of this phase is developing the system to the point where it’s ready for deployment;
4. Transition. This phase focuses on delivering the system into production;
5. Production. This phase encompasses the period of the system lifecycle at which you operate and support a system until it’s either replaced with a new version or retired and removed completely from use;
6. Retirement. The focus of this phase is the removal of a system from production;

Time for an SOA-open source mashup

This time Joe Mckendrick talk again about the (inevitable) mix between proprietary and open-source SOA implementation. See why:

It's an unavoidable fact; many SOAs will be running on the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP/Perl/Python) and LAMJ (Linux-Apache-MySQL-J2EE) stacks.

Also:

The open-source JBoss, JonAS, and Apache application servers are also open-source phenomena that are becoming a huge part of the Web services/SOA scene. True, an SOA can be constructed entirely on commercial software with standardized interfaces. But an SOA running on a commodity open-source environment — built with open-source toolsets — is an incredible value proposition, far more than an SOA built on WebSphere, WebLogic, or Microsoft BizTalk and .NET. These app servers have steep licensing costs, and companies looking for low-end platforms to build their services can turn to open-source app servers such as JBoss and Apache Geronimo.

IBM

Consider the evolving strategies of two of the biggest infrastructure providers, IBM and BEA. IBM loves Linux, of course, one, because it's not Microsoft, and two, because the open-source OS provides a growth path for Big Blue's legacy systems ... ...For IBM, this is an entree into the small to medium size business market, and in response to the growing prevalence of open-source products such as JBoss and JonAS.

BEA

...For example, in October, BEA announces a "blended" approach to provide automated management and production-level support for customers using the open-source Apache Tomcat servlet container. Previously, BEA Systems has made overtures to the open-source folks, announcing that new updates to its Beehive component-based development environment were available through the open-source Apache Software Foundation. The Apache Beehive projects will also be able to run on JOnAS, Apache Geronimo, and Apache Tomcat server

Five SOA Predictions for 2006

Dave Linthicum posted this post on Jan, 2nd '06: his 5 SOA "hot topics" for this year. They are:

1. More consolidation. Usually, in an emerging space, consolidation occurs once a space gets hot then begins to cool.

2. Focus on outside-in SOA. As we begin to stand up more public Web services and marketplaces that sell them, there will be a focus on how to leverage those services within the enterprise.

3. Focus on ROI. At the end of the day we should be able to define the amount of money a SOA will save us, now and longer term.

4. Movement to true services. As we learn more about this technology we're also learning the differences between information- and service-oriented integration, and understand that true services provide more value.

5. A few killer SOAs will emerge. As we get better at implementing this technology, a few very good architectures will begin to emerge that add a great deal of value to the organizations who implement them.

SOA and Java: SYS-CON Announces Readers' Choice Awards

SYS-CON Announces Readers' Choice Awards for SOA, Web Services, Java, and XML Technologies
— SYS-CON Media announced today the results of its 10th annual 'Readers' Choice Awards' for best products and tools for the SOA, Web Services, Java and XML technologies. Winners and three finalists were announced today in 21 categories by SOA Web Services Journal. Java Developer's Journal also announced winners and finalists in 26 distinct product and tool categories.

Some results:
SOA

1) Best SOA / Service-Oriented Architecture
Winner: webMethods Enterprise Services Platform (webMethods)

Runners-Up:
1) BEA WebLogic Platform (BEA Systems)
2) IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation (IBM)
3) Artix (IONA Technologies)

2) Best Application Server for SOA / Web Services
Winner: BEA WebLogic Server 8.1 (BEA Systems)

Runners-Up:
1) Sun Java System Application Server (Sun Microsystems)
2) JBoss Application Server (JBoss)
3) WebSphere Application Server (IBM)

3) Best Web Services Platform
Winner: Java EE (Sun Microsystems)

6) Best Framework for SOA and Web Services
Winner: Java Web Services Developer Pack (Sun Microsystems)

10) Best GUI for SOA
Winner: Eclipse (Eclipse Foundation)

20) Best SOA Portal Platform
Winner: Sun Java System Portal Server (Sun Microsystems)

Java
1) Best Java Application Server
Winner: BEA WebLogic Server (BEA Systems)
Runners-Up:
1) JBoss Application Server (JBoss)

2) Best Java Application
Winner: Eclipse (Eclipse Foundation)

10) Best Rich Client Platform
Winner: Eclipse Rich Client Platform (Eclipse Foundation)

13) Best Java Messaging Tool
Winner: IBM WebSphere MQ (IBM)

17) Best Team Development Tool
Winner: Eclipse IDE (Eclipse Foundation)

26) Best Java Book
Winner: Hibernate in Action (Manning Publications)
Runners-Up:
1) J2EE BluePrints (Sun Microsystems)
2) Core Java 2 (Sun Microsystems)
3) Java Developer’s Guide to Eclipse (IBM)

Celtix: Open Source Java Enterprise Service Bus

Celtix is an open-source JAVA ESB (Enterprise Sevice Bus). Celtix is developed by IONA Technologies and on December, 22th reached its 3rd milestone.

With the delivery of Milestone 3, the Celtix project compares favourably with available commercial ESBs," explained Carl Trieloff, director, Open Source Programs, IONA. "The Celtix community has delivered robust JMS support and this, combined with the other features made available in Milestone 3, gives end users a powerful, and cost-effective, ESB to support their Service Oriented Architecture and other integration projects.

A good source of information is (of course) the Celtix Wiki. There you can learn to build a simple application using Celtix ESB: "End-to-End HelloWorld" (believe or not!).

How to Implement a Successful SOA Pilot Program

SOAWebServices Jornal presents an interesting article titled "How to Implement a Successful SOA Pilot Program". Dan Foody and Alex Rosen (authors) give us some useful tips about a SOA implementation.
Critical Pre-SOA Initiative Questions

1. How do we phase in and successfully manage the move to SOA within the current IT environment?
2. How do we leverage the existing IT infrastructure and investments in the SOA?
3. What procedures need to be established or modified?
4. Where will policy and security reside?
5. How do we explain the benefits of SOA and provide financial justification to the business stakeholders?
6. How does the move from silos to SOA impact our ability to detect and resolve problems?
7. Who owns shared applications or services and how do we allocate costs and budgets for these services?
8. What do we need to do to ensure our SOA scales from pilot to production? With thorough, up-front planning, a transition to SOA can be achieved efficiently and provide tangible benefits to the enterprise. The following passages will offer guidance in answering the questions listed above.

Critical Question to Answer:

1. What are your primary reasons for using SOA? (To reduce costs? Achieve better flexibility? Enable faster delivery? Improve customer satisfaction?)
2. What is driving your near-term use of SOA? (Connecting your core applications? Integrating with your partners? Providing a single view for customers and/or users? Getting real-time business metrics? Regulatory compliance?)
3. What is the long-term potential for SOA in your organization? (Faster product introductions? Flexible outsourcing? Business process flexibility? Stricter governance? Other?)

10 Steps to SOA

This article from ComputerWorld/Australia briefly point out 10 (good) steps toward SOA.
"True, SOA (service oriented architecture) builds on the stack of protocols that define Web services, but it is hardly limited to that stack and draws as much on time-honoured notions of business "re-engineering" as it does on XML, SOAP, and WSDL. Simply put, SOA is a broad, standards-based framework in which services are built, deployed, managed, and orchestrated in pursuit of new and much more agile IT infrastructures that respond swiftly to shifting business demands."

These 10 Steps would be:
1: Think big, start small
2: Go to the whiteboard
3: Survey your surroundings
4: Connect your first services
5: Deploy registry
6: Start tackling governance
7: Lay your security plans
8: Messaging infrastructure
9: Deploy service management
10: Consider orchestration

Good reading!

Get started now with Eclipse

New to Eclipse? This is an excellent article from IBM/DeveloperWorks:

"Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on providing an extensible development platform and application frameworks for building software. This article gives you links to the latest version of Eclipse, information on IBM's involvement with Eclipse, and a guide to some of the most interesting Eclipse projects. Learn what Eclipse is good for, why it is important, how you can get started, and where to learn more about it."

Main topics:

• What is Eclipse?
• What Eclipse is good for?
• Why is Eclipse important?
• What does IBM have to do with Eclipse?
• What are the Eclipse communities?
• Why should I contribute to Eclipse?
• How can I become an Eclipse committer?
• What should I know about using or contributing to Eclipse?
• What are some Eclipse's interesting projects?
• Who wrote this guide?

The SOA Weblog: Definition of Service-Oriented Architecture

Tired of SOA definitions? Here is another one :-):

In Service-Oriented Architecture autonomous, loosely-coupled and coarse-grained services with well-defined interfaces provide business functionality and can be discovered and accessed through a supportive infrastructure. This allows internal and external system integration as well as the flexible reuse of application logic through the composition of services.

Did you realize that there is no mention to any specific product? I liked it!