SOA Plug-and-Play Services

SOA Articles : SOA Plug-and-Play Services by Finacle from Infosys

Shifting economic conditions and rapidly evolving IT strategies along with mergers and acquisitions have left few banks with an appetite to untangle the morass of legacy systems running their businesses. Due to the siloed architecture within banks, where each business unit has their own systems and islands of information, core-banking replacement is a complex integration exercise. Islands of systems have to be either made redundant or integrated with the new solution based on business requirements and processes.

But this, thankfully, is not holding up progress and innovation, thanks, in part, to the increased adoption of Web services and its conceptual cousin, the Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA). SOA is neither a product nor a solution. It is an integration framework that binds internal and external services to create a solution. With SOA, instead of focusing on different applications that reside on different computers, the emphasis is on business services that represent several different underlying applications. As SOA can seamlessly be put into practice in existing IT environments it ensures that changes in technology and processes during core banking replacements can be phased out and managed effectively.

The plug-and-play benefits of SOA and Web services promises to increase the pace of innovation in financial services. Clearly, by adopting SOA and process driven core banking solutions banks worldwide can achieve tremendous benefits. Following this, this paper describes a banking solution framework which depicts how SOA delivers maximum agility.

Read the complete white paper




About the Author
Finacle solutions address the core banking, e-banking, Islamic banking, treasury, wealth management and CRM requirements of retail, corporate and universal banks worldwide.

Source: SOA Service Oriented Architecture information at goarticles.com

SOA Consulting Services

SOA Consulting Services - SOA Software Consulting Services

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services are quickly becoming a dominant consideration in all phases of IT strategy and planning. According to Forrester Research, more than seventy percent of CIOs are piloting, implementing, or strongly considering Service-Oriented Architecture SOA and Web services at their companies. The rapid adoption of Web services validates their strong potential for streamlining application development, reducing the cost and complexity of systems integration, improving system interoperability, and enabling more flexible and agile business processes.

When an organization transitions to Service-Oriented Architecture SOA, either as a sweeping architectural initiative, or iteratively though adoption of Web services, it faces increased complexity in the integration and interoperability of systems as well as in the management of development, deployment, and testing functions. Additionally, security and manageability issues increase dramatically in a loosely coupled, distributed SOA Service-Oriented Architecture. Organizations quickly realize the need for a security, management and governance infrastructure for their Service-Oriented Architecture SOA.

SOA Software, Inc., the leader in Service-Oriented Architecture SOA Infrastructure is conducting a series of workshops with individual customers to help them identity where and how they can best take advantage of emerging technologies and standards in this space. These workshops are designed to provide enterprises with the ability to more effectively and safely leverage Web services standards, and develop the in-house skills and processes to leverage the enormous efficiencies and flexibility afforded by a standards-based, loosely coupled architecture.

Each workshop is conducted at the customer’s offices and should include key stakeholders in the enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture SOA including executives and managers from architecture, operations and security teams. SOA Software will provide one or more of its industry experts to lead the workshop and provide feedback based on extensive industry experience.

SOA Software offers these workshops as part of an initiative to accelerate adoption of Service-Oriented Architecture SOA and gather requirements for future product families.

Iona adds components to Artix SOA suite

Iona adds components to Artix SOA suite - Iona hopes to strengthen its position against big vendors like IBM, BEA, and SAP, which have been expanding their SOA offerings - By James Niccolai, IDG News Service

Iona Technologies hopes to strengthen its position in the middleware market with a new version of its Artix SOA Infrastructure Suite released Monday, which includes several updates and two components.

Big vendors including IBM, BEA Systems, and SAP have been expanding their suites of SOA (services oriented architecture) products, making it harder for smaller vendors like Iona to compete. Iona's strategy is to emphasize its independence and provide tools that customers can use to bridge environments based on the big vendors' products, such as IBM's WebSphere and BEA's WebLogic.

"They're not going to compete in terms of breadth of products or services, but where they do play well is in heterogeneous environments, because of their great adherence to standards," said Brad Shimmin, principal analyst for applications infrastructure software with Current Analysis.

Iona's software is also known for good performance, which includes being able to parse a high volume of messages between applications quickly, and has carved out a niche in vertical industries such as telecommunications and finance, Shimmin said.

Iona hopes to defend its niche further with Artix 5, an update to its software tools for services oriented architecture SOA development that can be bought in separate components or as a suite.

It includes a new component called Artix Data Services, which transforms messages into the correct data format automatically as they pass between applications, said Sean Baker, Iona co-founder and chief corporate scientist. Two financial applications might be using different versions of the SWIFT banking standard, for example, and Data Services will transform the data as it's exchanged. Data Services is based on technology from Iona's acquisition of C24 earlier this year.

The other new component in the suite is Artix Registry/Repository, a "catalog" listing the software services available to a company's developers, including information about who can use the services and how they should be deployed. The software was announced in April and is now available as part of the suite for the first time.

Iona also updated the three existing Artix components. A new version of Artix ESB (enterprise service bus) adds support for JAX-WS 2.0 and WSDLGen, which should help boost developer productivity, Baker said. Artix Orchestration adds support for version 2.0 of BPEL (Business Process Execution Language); and Artix Mainframe has several performance improvements.

The company has also finished rewriting the core of the Artix suite in Java, which will be offered alongside the existing C++ version, Baker said. The job took 15 months and will mean better performance for developers writing to Artix in Java, he said.

Some of the updates to Artix 5 are required to keep pace with competitors, like the support for BPEL 2.0, but others, like the Data Services component, are quite forward looking, Shimmin said. Even the BPEL, services oriented architecture technology, update is well done, he said, because Artix 5 will migrate BPEL4WS 1.1 processes automatically to BPEL 2.0.

The performance increases are necessary to keep pace with rivals such as pure-play ESB vendor Cape Clear, which also emphasizes performance, he said.

Artix 5 is available now. Pricing for the ESB, services oriented architecture technology, and Orchestration components start at $10,000 per CPU (central processing unit), Artix Data Services starts at $7,500 per CPU and the Registry/Repository begins at $45,000 for a starter kit supporting up to 10 services.

Acquire and Sharpen your Team's SOA Skills

Acquire and Sharpen your Team's SOA Skills

To be successful with your service oriented architecture SOA initiative, you must pull together the right team of professionals. However, figuring out the right set of skills, locating those skills within and outside your organization, and cultivating those individuals for growth is a continual challenge. Let ZapThink help you attain, cultivate, and grow your base of service oriented architecture SOA skills.

Master Architect Training and Education
Need to bolster your service oriented architecture SOA capabilities with the latest techniques, approaches, and methodologies for SOA? Want to learn what others in the industry are doing with service oriented architecture SOA and how to apply them to your own business? If so, sign up for ZapThink's specialized training and education courses tailored to your needs around training your architects and expanding their capabilities. ZapThink and our Licensed Partners provide single and multi-day training sessions utilizing courseware and training materials gleaned from over six years of education on the topic of Service Orientation. Contact ZapThink today to find out more about Master Architect training and education services and to sign up today!

Architect Skills Assessment
Companies are now demanding specific capabilities from the architects and the consulting firms they hire. Spend some time with ZapThink for us to assess your current service oriented architecture SOA skills and match them against the needs of your current and prospective customers for service oriented architecture SOA.ZapThink offers enterprises and consulting firms interested in assessing their current and future skills focused advisory on a daily basis that aims to measure your current capabilities, provide our opinions on how they match up with what others in the industry are offering, and provide a way to either grow existing architects to become more SOA-proficient or advise on hiring practices. Contact ZapThink today to maximize the capabilities of your service oriented architecture SOA architects!

Extra Bench Strength
Want the help of Licensed ZapThink Partners to assist in your delivery of service oriented architecture SOA services? If so, you can engage with us on a project basis for help with your most critical and time-sensitive service oriented architecture SOA needs. Let us leverage ZapThink's network to give you the SOA guidance, help, and step-up you need to make your SOA efforts successful. Contact ZapThink today to enhance your SOA capabilities and offerings!

Recruiting Services
ZapThink's audience of over 20,000 architects and other professionals might just contain the perfect individual to complete your team. Call upon us both to connect you with prospective hires we know personally, and also to advertise your openings to our full audience. We only post a few openings per year, so your ideal candidate will be sure to take interest in yours. Contact ZapThink today to find out about ZapThink's SOA recruiting capabilities

Tactical Advisory
Call upon ZapThink's Senior Analysts and Master Architects to provide tactical advice and assistance via phone and email. Ask us any question service oriented architecture SOA, no matter how technical, and we'll bring our combined fifty-plus years of experience to bear to give you the right advice every time. Contact ZapThink today to enhance your service oriented architecture SOA capabilities and offerings!

Get Master-Level SOA Assistance & Mentorship

Get Master-Level SOA Assistance & Mentorship

Want to get your architects and other personnel up to speed with service oriented architecture SOA? Want the best, highest quality guidance and implementation for your service oriented architecture SOA initiative? Want to leverage ZapThink expertise with hands-on assistance? Then check out the Mentorship and Architecture Design & Implementation services offered by ZapThink and our Licensed ZapThink Partners (LZP) - the only credentialed firms qualified to deliver high-quality service oriented architecture SOA leveraging the best practices that ZapThink espouses.

Service-Orientation Mentorship Services -- Leverage ZapThink's Master Architects, who each have well over a dozen years of real-world enterprise architecture experience and expertise to bring your team up to speed fast. We place our Master Architect on your team to teach by example. Our Master Architects offer the following specific capabilities, among others:


SOA Implementation Roadmap Guidance -- To lower the risk of your service oriented architecture SOA initiative, it's important to plan the rollout in detail. Fortunately, taking an iterative approach to SOA is a best practice as represented in the ZapThink SOA Road Map. Let ZapThink and our partners help you make service oriented architecture SOA a success by giving you the right tools to implement SOA in the right order and with the right expectations.

SOA Infrastructure, Tools, and Vendor Selection Guidance -- The service oriented architecture SOA ecosystem of vendors and solution providers is complex and continually emerging. Selecting the right products can be risky, and the wrong choice can derail a project and lead to wasted time and money. Let ZapThink help you select the right technologies, solution providers, infrastructure choices, and architectural approaches to increase the speed and lower the risk of your adoption of service oriented architecture SOA. ZapThink has helped many firms in their Requests for Proposal (RFP) or Requests for Information (RFI) processes, and we can do the same for you.

SOA Methodology Guidance -- Let ZapThink's Master Architects guide you down the path to selecting and implementing the right approaches and methodologies for making SOA a success for your firm.

Architecture and Design Services -- ZapThink works with a carefully selected set of Licensed Partners who provide seasoned architects ZapThink has personally trained. Call upon ZapThink and our partners to provide hands-on service oriented architecture SOA design and implementation services for any part of your SOA initiative.

Increase the Quality & Lower the Risk of your SOA Initiative

Increase the Quality & Lower the Risk of your SOA Initiative

Just because you're implementing service oriented architecture SOA doesn't mean you're implementing it properly. ZapThink is in the business of collecting the most effective, highest quality approaches to doing service oriented architecture SOA and compiling them in such a way that emerging leaders of the service oriented architecture SOA movement can leverage them for their own success. Take advantage of our Master Architecture Packs to provide the methodology, artifacts, and expertise you need to tackle the difficult parts of your SOA initiative.

Master Architecture Packs include:

SOA Scope Definition -- ZapThink's Master Architects will work with your architects to define the scope of your service oriented architecture SOA initiative. We'll help you determine which departments should contribute, how Services should be shared, and how to phase your SOA initiative for the greatest business value at the lowest risk.

Building the Business Case for SOA -- ZapThink's Master Architects will help you identify the business problems that service oriented architecture SOA is most appropriate to solve, and work with you to craft an ROI or TCO justification argument for your SOA initiative.

Process Decomposition and Service Identification -- ZapThink's Master Architects will mentor your architects as they work with lines of business to delineate targeted business processes with an eye for identifying likely Services. Our architects will then help you identify the appropriate Services for your initiative, and assist in the creation of the Service Model.

Governance Framework Development -- ZapThink's Master Architects will work with your compliance analysts, architects, and business analysts to guide the creation of your governance framework, which will help you get the most benefit from your service oriented architecture SOA initiative, as well as improving the manageability and visibility of your IT environment.

Service Contract Templates and Best Practices -- ZapThink will work with you to define the metadata-based approach by which you define the scope of your Services. Since Metadata are key to making loosely-coupled service oriented architecture SOA efforts work, one of your first activities is defining the methods and approaches by which you define Service contracts. Let ZapThink assist in building out your Service Contract best practices.

SOA Organizational and Architectural Change Management -- SOA represents significant organizational, political, and cultural changes to your organization. ZapThink's Master Architects can help you craft a change management process specifically tailored to the service oriented architecture SOA rollout project.

Access our Growing Library of SOA Best Practices
ZapThink's research and advisory covers the most compelling, state-of-the-art, emerging, and increasingly field-proven approaches to doing SOA right. However, accessing that library is not enough for future leaders of the service oriented architecture SOA movement. Indeed, true leaders are acknowledged by ZapThink by their contributions to the SOA Best Practices Library. Through our ZapThought Leadership Program and our Licensed ZapThink Partner program, companies can become acknowledged in public for their contributions to the emerging best practices of service oriented architecture SOA.