1. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 1 Emerging Trends in SOA: Rich, Smart, Mashed, and Governed Ronald Schmelzer Senior Analyst ZapThink, LLC

2. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 2 The Problems of IT are The Problems of Business

3. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 3 Business Constant: Change CHANGE Competition Changing Marketplace Customer Demands Mergers & Acquisitions Optimizing Processes New Technologies Business Partners A Business is Never STATIC

4. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 4 We’ve had IT challenges for years …

5. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 5 … but even after yesterday’s promises…

6. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 6 … we still have the same IT mess, only worse.

7. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 7 The Business Inflexibility Trap Inflexibility is the Mother of All Business Problems –If you’re flexible enough, you can solve all the other problems Information Technology (IT) is an impediment to business change –It wasn’t supposed to be that way!

8. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 8 Companies require Business Agility… »Responding quickly to change, and »Leveraging change for competitive advantage J Business Agility Agility is the key to innovation

9. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 9 What do you Want your IT to Do Anyway? The Automation Paradox –The more we automate, the more our remaining problems are difficult to automate Is IT about getting the technology to work together or to help the business meet its goals? Who’s in control of IT, anyway?

10. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 10 Service Orientation: Light at the End of the Tunnel Service Orientation is a business approach It’s not about connecting things, it’s about enabling processes The core business motivation is business agility Rather than “rip and replace” old systems – make them work better together We don’t want more middleware for our middleware

11. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 11 Level Set – What is SOA? SOA is architecture – a set of best practices for the organization and use of IT Abstracts software functionality as loosely-coupled, business-oriented Services Services can be composed into business processes (which are also Services) in a declarative manner As fundamental a change as mainframe to client/server or client/server to the Internet

12. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 12 What is a “Service”? Broad meaning: something providing a capability to another as needed –IT Services, like print services or email services –Business Services, like accounting or human resource management –Software-as-a-Service Narrower meaning: an abstraction of IT functionality or data –Web Services are one example –SOA starts with this kind of Service

13. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 13 The Benefits of SOA… Reduced cost of integration Improved value from legacy applications Reuse leading to reduced redundancy Greater visibility for governance & compliance Increased reuse of software assets Business agility

14. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 14 Key Areas of SOA Investment Reduction in integration expense –EAI replacement/EAI maintenance reduction –Legacy enablement/migration/rejuvenation Increase in reuse –Reduction in redundancy –Better customer visibility Increase in business agility –Improved competitiveness –Faster innovation Enablement of governance & compliance

15. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 15 Have We Been Here Before? Service-Oriented Architectures have been around a while CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) and DCOM (Microsoft Distributed Component Object Model) two familiar examples What’s new this time?

16. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 16 How to Think Service-Oriented Service-Orientation is about change IT must respond to change, empower users, and enable innovation

17. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 17 SOA shifts the way we think Traditional Distributed Computing Service Oriented Architecture Designed to lastDesigned to change Tightly CoupledLoosely Coupled, Agile and Adaptive Integrate SilosCompose Services Code OrientedMetadata Oriented Long development cycleInteractive and iterative development Cost centeredBusiness centered Middleware makes it workArchitecture makes it work Favors Homogeneous TechnologyFavors Heterogeneous Technology

18. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 18 Revisiting the Definition of Application Original definition of application was what task a computer was applied to –Colossus at England’s Bletchley Park was applied to breaking codes, so that was its application The rise of programmable digital computers associated the word application with computer program

19. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 19 SOA: Rethinking the Application Today, business users apply Services to solve business problems by building Service-Oriented Business Apps (SOBAs) SOA abstracts existing capabilities –Breaks down existing application silos SOA puts greater power into the hands of business users –Requires tooling business users are comfortable with SOA empowers IT governance –Creating, communicating, and managing policies more important than ever

20. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 20 The Rise of the SOBA A Service-Oriented Business Application (SOBA) is a composite application composed of Services that implements a business process

21. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 21 Service-Oriented Process Business processes in the context of SOA SOBAs as empowerment tool for the business over process Integration as a side effect of implementing Service-Oriented Processes thru Service composition

22. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 22 The Services Tipping Point Until now, focus on building Services –SOA infrastructure –Legacy enablement –Identifying reusable Services –Building loosely coupled Services Now, focus moving to consuming Services –Finding the right Service for the task at hand –Composing Services into SOBAs –Supporting rich user interfaces for Services and SOBAs

23. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 23 Web 2.0 vs. SOA Web 2.0 SOA Mashups Enterprise Mashups Enterprise Web 2.0

24. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 24 The Rise of the Mashup Mashup = a flexible composition of Services within a rich user interface environment In essence, a Mashup is a SOBA interface Source: http://web2.wsj2.com

25. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 25 The Future of the Enterprise Mashup

26. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 26 A Closer Look at Service Composition Line-of-business users (analysts, process architects) can find, identify, understand, and assemble available Services They need a flexible tool that provides a visual metaphor appropriate to the task at hand –Process flowcharting tool? –Mind mapping tool? –Rules engine? –Spreadsheet? –Any/all of the above

27. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 27 Empower Business Users? The mashup: leveraging the Web to compose Services into ad hoc apps Without management and governance, will never be appropriate in an enterprise environment How to empower users in the spirit of the mashup, but maintain necessary control? Governance the key to the “Enterprise Mashup”

28. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 28 Without Governance, Mashups are Dangerous Mashups enable unpredictable SOBAs Risks: –Confidentiality breaches –Unauthorized capabilities –Fraud

29. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 29 Flexibility, Empowerment & Control The old way: IT management maintains control, doles out limited capabilities to users The Service-Oriented way: IT empowers a wide range of business users to build and manage SOBAs Risk: business users will really muck things up! Solution: SOA governance – business user empowerment in the context of policy-based control

30. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 30 The SOA “Killer App” Part modeling tool –Coordinate representations of Services, processes, policies, and implementation on an ongoing basis Part composition tool –Provide all the visual metaphors business analysts require Part governance tool –Manage policies and the policy lifecycle Part management dashboard –Gives the business all the visibility it requires Part consumption tool –Brings together various user interfaces as needed

31. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 31 In Summary SOA enables composition of Services into SOBAs – meeting the continuously changing needs of business. Enterprises want to “mashup” their IT to meet their changing consumption needs Without SOA, mashups are toys – tightly-coupled, UI-based integration, not agile Without governance, mashups are dangerous! The evolution that SOA and Enterprise Web 2.0 represents is an evolution in the enterprise application Help SOA evolve!

32. Copyright © 2006, ZapThink, LLC 32 Thank You! ZapThink is an industry analysis firm focused exclusively on Service-Oriented Architecture. Ronald Schmelzer rschmelzer@zapthink.com Photos © Lisa Polucci Read our new book, Service Orient or Be Doomed! How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business.