Cutting Through the Confusion of Web Services and SOA Management
There are so many definitions of Web services management and SOA management. What does this all mean to the IT leaders and architects who are trying to plan long-term for an enterprise SOA that is practical, reliable, and secure?
One thing that is still amazes me is that I find myself talking to technical journalists these days. Many journalists are interesting and knowledgeable people, but I sometimes find myself surprised that they would want to talk to a pony-tailed techie like me. Maybe there is a shortage of glib-tongued corporate spokespersons, but who am I to complain?
Anyway, I was recently asked by one such journalist to comment upon the challenge of enabling SOAs to live up to their promise. As you probably know, an SOA can make it much easier for automated business processes to be valuable and dynamic – rapidly adjusting to changes in business conditions and collaborating with other segments of the business organization, partners, suppliers, customers, and even regulators. Of course, all of that potential benefit only counts if it can be depended upon. So, in my interview the subject of SOA management came up (surprise!).
SOA and Web services management is certainly an important part of what this blog is all about. That’s part of the confusion these days. There are so many definitions of Web services management and SOA management. Moreover, the very nature of the potentially manageable entities that inhabit the SOA continues to change. A couple of years ago, ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) was not yet a name on the marketing hit parade. As the term becomes overextended and overused, people are resorting to other concepts like fabric or framework.
What does this all mean to the IT leaders and architects who are trying to plan long-term for an enterprise SOA that is practical, reliable, and secure? How can we achieve these goals if the entities we must manage and secure seem to be shifting in the marketing wind? Is it sufficient to manage at the service or operation level, or will we ultimately need to do more? These are some of the questions we will explore. To me, this blog is not about my pontificating on a particular vision of management (although I do reserve the right to “pound the pulpit” a little). It’s a chance for us all to respect and learn from each other. OK, so I’m idealistic. That goes with the pony tail!
"By the way, what I mean by SOA management is many important aspects of management, including security management, systems management, life-cycle management, and so on. My personal definition includes all of the above categories and more – although that doesn’t necessarily mean you must implement all these categories of SOA management at the same time.
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More to follow…
"Disclaimer: This weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my opinion.
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