SOA Books - Understanding Enterprise SOA

SOA Books - Understanding Enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture by Eric Pulier and Hugh Taylor with foreword by Paul Gaffney

About this book

This SOA book is for anyone in the business world or in the public sector who needs to make sense of the new emerging standards for virtually all major information technology decisions. For business professionals, this book is meant to explain and clarify—in business terms—the way web services and SOA Service Oriented Architecture work in a business setting. For IT professionals, the book provides a business-oriented overview of Service Oriented Architecture SOA.

How the book is organized

The book is organized around the two critical areas necessary in realizing an enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture: technology and people. The nature of Service Oriented Architecture SOA is integrative; by definition, SOA Service Oriented Architecture pushes boundaries. Enterprise SOA cuts across multiple lines of business and technological disciplines. In the book this is amply illustrated through the presentation of the Titan Insurance case study, an up-close look at an insurance company that is suffering from the IT aftermath of a troubled merger.

In addition to an Introduction that sets out the parameters of Titan Insurance, and provides the back story, the book consists of two parts:

Part 1 “Understanding the technology of enterprise SOA” delves into the technological aspects of web services, as well as other technological issues that underlie the enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 provide a broad overview of web services, how they work, and what they can do for your business. Chapter 4 introduces the concept of the service-oriented architecture. Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 explore how the enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture changes the terrain of enterprise application integration, software development, business-to-business commerce, business process management, and real-time operations. Chapters 9 and 10 introduce the extremely important discussions of security and management of enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture. Chapters 11 and 12 look at SOA networks and utility computing, two deployment scenarios that are likely to be on your horizon if you are considering an SOA Service Oriented Architecture.

Part 2 “Understanding the people and process of enterprise SOA Service Oriented Architecture, returns to the Titan case in full depth and provides a thorough look at the political, personal, and technological factors that arise when implementing an enterprise SOA at a real company. Chapter 13 looks at realizing Titan’s wish list for its Service Oriented Architecture SOA and begins to sort out how to deal with the individual players involved in the process. Chapter 14 continues with a description of how we achieved consensus among the players about how to pursue an effective SOA Service Oriented Architecture. Chapter 14 also introduces the “four P’s”—people, pilot, plan, and proceed—my suggested four-stage process for best practices in enterprise SOA. Chapters 15 and 16 go into more depth on how the training and pilot planning process works. In addition, these chapters outline a best practices approach to identifying the applications in an enterprise that are best suited for exposure as web services, a process I call service discovery. Chapter 17 examines platform selection and establishment of project goals and measurements of success. Chapter 18 concludes the book with a look at how Titan Insurance has moved forward with its Service Oriented Architecture SOA plan.

About the authors

Eric Pulier Founder and Executive Chairman of Service Oriented Architecture SOA Software and a widely recognized pioneer and visionary in the world of information technology. Named one of 30 e-Visionaries by VAR Business, Eric is a featured speaker at industry conferences and events and a member of the IBM’s UDDI Advisory Community. He leads Service Oriented Architecture SOA Software’s trailblazing efforts to develop breakthrough solutions for the management of XML Web Services, working with such clients as Toyota, US Steel, Hewlett Packard, and Charles Schwab. Eric earned his BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Hugh Taylor Vice President of Marketing at Service Oriented Architecture SOA Software and the author of numerous white papers and articles on Service Oriented Architecture SOA, as well as the book, The Hollywood Job Hunter’s Survival Guide. Hugh earned his BA, Magna Cum Laude, and MBA from Harvard University. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.