By Robert Daigneau
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What about SOA?
Summary
Many definitions for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) have been offered. Some see it as a technical style of architecture that provides the means to integrate disparate systems and expose reusable business functions. Others, however, take a much broader view:
A service-oriented architecture is a style of design that guides all aspects of creating and using business services throughout their lifecycle (from conception to retirement). [Newcomer, Lomow, p. 13]
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. [OASIS Ref Model]
These viewpoints suggest that SOA is a design paradigm or methodology wherein “business functions” are enumerated as services, organized into logical domains, and somehow managed over their lifetimes. While SOA can help business personnel articulate their needs in a way that comes more naturally than, say, object-oriented analysis, there are still many ways to implement services. This book focuses on several technical solutions that may be used to create a SOA.
Summary
By eliminating coupling to specific computing platforms, web services have helped us overcome one of the main impediments to software reuse. However, there are many ways to go about designing services, and developers are confronted with a long list of questions that must be resolved. This book will help you find the solutions that are most appropriate for your situation.