A service-oriented architecture is essentially a collection of services. These services communicate with each other. The communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting services to each other is needed.
Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use
DCOM or Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification. For more
on DCOM and CORBA, see Prior
service-oriented architectures (new window).
Services
If a service-oriented architecture is to be effective, we need a clear understanding of the term service. A service is a function that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services.
See Service (new window).
Connections
The technology of Web services (new window)
is the most likely connection technology of service-oriented architectures. Web
services essentially use XML
(new window) to create a robust connection.
The following figure illustrates a basic service-oriented architecture. It shows a service consumer at the right sending a service request message to a service provider at the left. The service provider returns a response message to the service consumer. The request and subsequent response connections are defined in some way that is understandable to both the service consumer and service provider. How those connections are defined
is explained in Web Services explained
(new window). A service provider can also be a service consumer.
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article: Service-oriented architecture (SOA) definition.
Do we need cloud oriented architecture? ZDNet One of the criticisms leveled at service oriented architecture is that the 'architecture' aspect has often been overlooked. In one of his latest analyses, ...
Use SoaML to facilitate Model Driven Architecture SearchSOA The Service-oriented architecture Modeling Language (SoaML), a UML profile created by the Object Management Group (OMG) seeks to help architects and ...
Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design by Thomas Erl Average Customer Review: based on 59 reviews. Customer Review: Thomas Erl in this book provides an excellent reference and an independent/agnostic view of SOA that is not cluttered with Vendor speak. What I thought was valuable is the definition of business benefits, case studies and the beginning of SOA Principals and terminology that provides an organization a mechanism to organize their effo...
Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies® by Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper Average Customer Review: based on 20 reviews. Customer Review: I've always hated the "for Dummies" series -- while I never doubted its application to me (at least in some areas), I didn't think I should display my stupidity nakedly with a long line of yellow book spines! That said, the real difficulty with the series naming convention is it doesn't allow one to level-set purchases. Are the (IT-...
Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies by Michael Rosen, Boris Lublinsky, Kevin T. Smith, Marc J. Balcer Average Customer Review: based on 8 reviews. Customer Review: I have not seen a SOA book that is as practical as this one. Most of the people I work with understand why SOA is important, and we all get the vision by now. Many of the other popular SOA books ONLY focus on the vision and "what is SOA?" but not much else. This book is different. It provides details. It focuses on architecture, desi...
Service-Oriented Modeling (SOA): Service Analysis, Design, and Architecture by Michael Bell Average Customer Review: based on 31 reviews. Customer Review: Before I purchased this book I was skeptical about its promise. I'm not a big fan of big title books or publishers' promotions. But this SOA modeling book is unique. It makes sense. It is logical. It is one of the best software modeling books that I have read. I think that it is big in historical proportions. A big part of it is a s...
Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL: From Business Process Modeling to Orchestration and Service Oriented Architecture by Kapil Pant, Matjaz Juric Average Customer Review: based on 1 review. Customer Review: A brief background on my credentials - I'm with Interway , a company that provides software products to companies to help with their SOA needs (among other things). Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL (http://interway.sk/en/technologies/service-oriented-architecture-soa/resource-center/business-process-driven-soa-using-bpm...
based on 59 reviews.
based on 20 reviews.
based on 31 reviews.
