Service Oriented Architecture

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a flexible robust infrastructure to model, assemble, deploy and manage business processes for todays on demand business environment. SOA is cost-effective, modular and scalable allowing end-to-end SOA solutions that can be customised to your requirements, timetables and priorities. SOA helps customers increase the flexibility of their business processes, strengthen their underlying IT infrastructure and retain and reuse their existing assets.

Why SOA?

The basis for any SOA starts with businesses processes. A service is simply a business task. To successfully gain IT flexibility and solve real business problems like increasing customer service, integrating with business partners, or gaining a unified view of customers, just to name a few a strong and tight link between business and IT is key. Companies can gain flexibility while aligning business and IT by managing business processes through a Service Oriented Architecture. SOA uses flexible connections with well defined, standards-based interfaces to help companies build flexibility into their existing infrastructure. SOA services can be re-used extensively regardless of whether they are new services or existing IT assets.

What are the Benefits of SOA?

SOA helps create greater alignment between IT and line of business while generating more IT flexibility. Your business processes are changing faster and faster and global competition requires the flexibility that SOA can provide. SOA can help you get better reuse out of your existing IT investments as well as the new services you're developing today. SOA makes integration of your IT easier by making use of well-defined interfaces between services. SOA also provides an architectural model for integrating business partners, customers and suppliers services into an enterprise business processes. This reduces cost and improves customer satisfaction.

Buy or Build SOA?

To move your organisation toward greater service orientation, you need to take a balanced approach to buying versus building. To create the infrastructure for an SOA, you'll need to purchase SOA software that complements rather than replaces your existing IT infrastructure. You will also require hands-on involvement to integrate and develop the software effectively to get the most out of it. The real answer is that you need a certain measure of both buying and building. From both the buy and build perspective, we address the whole SOA to help create an SOA environment thats right for your specific needs.

How do I integrate with my legacy applications?

Legacy applications are frequently at the core of your IT environment. But many of these essential applications are isolated and inaccessible to common skill sets. Without the right skills and tools, it can be difficult to integrate these core investments with the rest of your IT environment. However, we can make this much easier. We can help you identify discrete elements within your legacy applications and "wrap" them in standards-based interfaces and use them as services within your SOA. We can accelerate your integration efforts through the use of application and technology adapters that have been developed cooperatively with our many partners.

How does the Enterprise Service Bus relate to SOA?

The Enterprise Service Bus is a core element of any SOA. ESBs provide the "any to any" connectivity between services within your own company, and beyond your business to connect to your trading partners. But SOA does not stop at just implementing an ESB. Depending on what your goals are, you may want to use an ESB to connect other services within your SOA such as information, interaction and business process management services. Additionally, you will need to consider development services and IT service management services. The SOA reference architecture can help you lay out an SOA environment that meets your needs and priorities. The ESB is part of this reference architecture and provides the backbone of an SOA but it should not be considered an SOA by itself.

How do I get started?

SOA is best approached as individual projects, each of which brings your business greater flexibility and service orientation. Successful SOA adoption is done incrementally, stressing the importance of starting small and scaling appropriately. Regardless of whether you're looking to SOA for an enterprise level project, a tactical technology level project or something in between we can help you identify what SOA projects make the most sense for your business and help you lay out a roadmap that makes sense for you.