"Service Oriented Architecture is a hot, but often misunderstood topic in IT today. Thomas articulately describes the concepts, specifications, and standards behind service orientation and Web Services. For enterprises adopting SOA, there is detailed advice for service-oriented analysis, planning, and design. This book is a must read!"
Alex Lynch, Principal Consultant, Microsoft Enterprise Services
"One primary objective of applying SOA in design is to provide business value to the solutions we build. Understanding the right approach to analyzing, designing, and developing service-oriented solutions is critical. Thomas has done a great job of demystifying SOA in practical terms with his book."
Rick Weaver, IBM Senior Consulting Certified SW I/T Specialist
"A pragmatic guide to SOA principles, strategy, and best practices that distills the hype into a general framework for approaching SOA adoption in complex enterprise environments."
Sameer Tyagi, Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Microsystems
"A very timely and much needed contribution to a rapidly emerging field. Through clarifying the principles and nuances of this space, the author provides a comprehensive treatment of critical key aspects of SOA from analysis and planning to standards ranging from WS-specifications to BPEL. I'll be recommending this book to both clients and peers who are planning on embracing SOA principles."
Ravi Palepu, Senior Field Architect, Rogue Wave Software
"Finally, an SOA book based on real implementation experience in production environments. Too many SOA books get lost in the technical details of Web Services standards, or simply repeat vendor hype. This book covers the really hard parts: the complex process of planning, designing and implementing service-oriented architectures that meet organizational goals. It is an essential companion to any software developer, architect, or project manager implementing or thinking about implementing a service-oriented architecture."
Priscilla Walmsley, Managing Director of Datypic
"Thomas Erl's Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Designis as good an introduction to service-oriented architectures as one could wish for. In a single volume, it covers the entire topic, from theory to real-world use to technical details. The examples are superb and the writing is wonderfully clear."
Ronald Bourret, Author, "XML and Databases"
"Finally an SOA book which gets to the point with real world answers and examples. Erl guides you on a real world SOA journey. From architecture design to industry standards, this book is well written and can be easily referenced for everyday use. When embarking on your own service orientated adventures, this is the book you want in your bag."
Clark Sell, Vice President, CSell Incorporated
"Organizations struggling to evolve existing service-oriented solutions beyond simple Web Services now have an expert resource available. Leading the way to the true service-oriented enterprise, Thomas Erl demystifies the complexities of the open WS-I standards with detailed practical discussions and case studies. Erl's depth and clarity makes this work a superb complement to his Field Guide."
Kevin P. Davis,
About the Author
Thomas Erl is the founder of SOA Systems Inc., an enterprise solutions provider specializing in SOA consulting and training services.
Thomas Erl is a best-selling IT author and founder of CloudSchool.com andSOASchool.com®. Thomas has been the world's top-selling service technology author for over five years and is the series editor of the Prentice Hall Service Technology Series from Thomas Erl (www.servicetechbooks.com), as well as the editor of the Service Technology Magazine (www.servicetechmag.com). With over 175,000 copies in print world-wide, his eight published books have become international bestsellers and have been formally endorsed by senior members of major IT organizations, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Accenture, IEEE, HL7, MITRE, SAP, CISCO, HP, and others.
Four of his books, Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture, SOA Design Patterns, SOA Principles of Service Design, and SOA Governance, were authored in collaboration with the IT community and have contributed to the definition of cloud computing technology mechanisms, the service-oriented architectural model and service-orientation as a distinct paradigm. Thomas is currently working with over 20 authors on several new books dedicated to specialized topic areas such as cloud computing, Big Data, modern service technologies, and service-orientation.
As CEO of Arcitura Education Inc. and in cooperation with CloudSchool.com andSOASchool.com®, Thomas has led the development of curricula for the internationally recognized SOA Certified Professional (SOACP) and Cloud Certified Professional (CCP) accreditation programs, which have established a series of formal, vendor-neutral industry certifications.
Thomas is the founding member of the SOA Manifesto Working Group and author of the Annotated SOA Manifesto (www.soa-manifesto.com). He is a member of the Cloud Education & Credential Committee, SOA Education Committee, and he further oversees theSOAPatterns.org andCloudPatterns.org initiatives, which are dedicated to the on-going development of master pattern catalogs for service-oriented computing and cloud computing.
Thomas has toured over 20 countries as a speaker and instructor for public and private events, and regularly participates in international conferences, including SOA, Cloud + Service Technology Symposium and Gartner events. Over 100 articles and interviews by Thomas have been published in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal and CIO Magazine.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design
Preface
Authoring this book involved nearly a year of writing, research, and staying on top of a subject matter that is constantly expanding its reach and importance. Although the majority of the chapters focus on service-oriented architecture from a vendor-neutral perspective, achieving an accurate representation of this perspective required that I spend a great deal of time evaluating SOA support in all primary vendor platforms. As part of this research stage I spoke with more than a hundred senior IT professionals, either through interviews or through my work as an awards judge evaluating platform submissions.
One of the most interesting facets of this project has been in defining service-orientation within the context of Web services. While studying the individual parts of what constitutes service-orientation as a paradigm, I came to realize just how many of its roots lie in past innovations. Yet at the same time, it is distinct, blending traditional and new concepts in support of a unique architectural model.
Despite its apparent "newness," SOA, on a fundamental level, is based on a very old and established school of thought. Service-orientation, as a means of separating things into independent and logical units, is a very common concept. As I progressed through these chapters, I began to notice this more often in everyday life. Items, people, organizations we come into contact with either offer some form of service or participate in performing a service. Once applied to technology architecture, though, service-orientation is concerned with a specific part of our service-oriented world: business automation.
Competitive business climates demand that corporations minimize redundant effort and maximize the expediency with which strategic goals can be achieved. Inefficient organizations that consistently waste resources are bound to fall behind. The manner in which an organization automates its business is a critical factor in determining the level of efficiency at which it operates and, ultimately, the extent of success it attains in its ventures.
This is what makes SOA so valuable. By shaping automation logic through service-orientation, existing investments can be leveraged, business intelligence can be accurately expressed, and inherent automation agility can be achieved. When coupled with the Web services technology platform, SOA offers a significant and real benefit potential that can transform the technology and outlook of an organization. My goal for this book is to help you explore, understand, and realize this potential.
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