Best Practices in Adopting SOA

Mike Gilpin

VP / Research Director

Forrester Research

Theme

Now is the time to make service oriented

architecture practical – to deliver real-world benefits.

Agenda

• How do companies view SOA?

• How is SOA being used today?

• How does SOA deliver business value?

• What are lessons learned from usage of Web Services & SOA?

• What next for Web Services & SOA?

Web services are catching on

Priority: Customer Information

SOA: A top issue for enterprise architects

What topics are you most interested in learning more about?

Information architecture: Where do I start? 50%

Security architecture: How well is it baked into your enterprise architecture? 50%

Enterprise architecture toolsets and capabilities 61%

Identity management 29%

Service-oriented architecture 64%

Refresh your enterprise architecture 43%

Organization of the central federated EA group 39%

Creating a mission and vision statement and turning it into an actionable plan 32%

How to measure and communicate ROI 14%

Preparing for a new CIO 18%

Improving the image of IT 21%

Process and project management 21%

Organizational structures and implementing organizational change 21%

What’s the next driver of enterprise architecture? 32%

Negotiating better contracts 4%

Base: 28 IT decision-makers on Forrester’s Enterprise Architecture Council(multiple responses accepted)

Forrester advocates SOA

• Center your architecture on services

• Design three core values into your SOA platform:

» Connections — rich and deep

» Configurability for Change — without coding

» Control — both IT and business

• Build a strategic platform, supplement with ecosystem

» Evolve your platform with your primary vendors’

» Build out for special needs from platform ecosystems

Why SOA?

• Respond to business change – including regulatory compliance – SOX, HIPAA, etc.

• Address new needs with existing applications (Composite Applications like order management)

• Support new channels & complex interactions (Single view of the customer across channels, integrated service/product offerings)

• Reduce B2B costs relative to proprietary predecessors

• Support Organic Business – linked ecosystems

SOA: The Platform for Organic Business

Service consumers

Service implementations

Service interfaces

Service delivery bus

Service rules

& config-uration

Service reporting

& mgt.

Ch

ang

e

Co

ntr

ol

Connection

SOA Stages for ERP

• Integration of heterogeneous applications across multiple platforms

» Time frame: Now

• Modular components within suites

» Time frame: Two to three years

• Market transformation to standards-based architectures

» Time frame: End of decade

SOA Stages for Integration

• Internally focused integration of heterogeneous applications across multiple platforms

» Time frame: Since 2003

• Externally focused integration

» Time frame: Targeted with key partners: Today (often requires special security arrangements)

» Time frame: Widespread B2B usage: 3-5 years

• Market transformation to standards-based architectures

» Time frame: End of decade

SOA — What it means to you

• Message-based integration — easier connections using standards

» Lowers maintenance and integration costs

• Modular / pluggable architecture — more flexibility

» Assembly of industry-specific and process-oriented solutions (e.g., STP, order-to-cash, …)

» Fewer vendor choices but more deployment options

• Platform ecosystem transformation — large vendors may force major upgrades by end of decade

Some Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

• Web services is only one implementation option

• Service design should be based on process steps

• IT organizations must act like ISVs

• Security and other “ilities” must be built in to SOAs

Lesson: Web services is only one SOA option

Low High

Perf

orm

an

ce/R

elia

bili

ty

High

CORBACORBA

EJBEJB

Accessibility

Low

Web Services

IBM MQIBM MQ

TuxedoTuxedoFuture Web

Services

Proprietary XML

EDIEDI

DCOMDCOM

Services enable composite applications

Portals

Packaged Apps

BPM

Lack processautomation

Hard codedFunctional silos

Not for collaborativeOr ad hoc activity

FlexibilityBusiness focus

Packaged processes

CompositeApplications

Lesson: Service design = work process step

• Self-contained units

• Interactions, not only atomic transactions

• Process steps, not individual functions

• Service domains help with organization

• Business services vs. technical services

Lesson: ISV practices are important

• Service interfaces are products

• Anticipate needs of users (internal and external)

» Testbeds

» Sample code

» Documentation

» Header flags

• Version management

• Backward compatibility

Service configuration

Service consumers

Integration server

Service interfaces

Lesson: The “ilities” must be built in

Process flows GUIs Devices Services Other

Modeling

Orches-tration

Rules

Creation

Registry

Service reporting

& mgt.

IT mgt.

Service mgt.

SLA mgt.

Business mgt.

Service delivery bus

Routing

TransactionsSecurityTransforms

Other

Legacy

Other

Application server

Filling the gaps

• Security frameworks: typically require customization to meet more stringent requirements like FS

• Session management: multiple WS interactions fit into broader sessions needing infrastructure support

• Version management: complexity of changing versions over time, mapping to multiple customers, requires rich infrastructure support

• Quality of service management: more advanced SOAs need infrastructure services that ensure higher levels of QoS where required by the customer

Recommendations

• Document and deliver application patterns

• Keep concepts of SOA and Web services distinct – leverage more than just Web services for SOA

• Accommodate selected legacies – but wrap services with semantic adaptation, not just pass-through

• Manage and secure your Web services infrastructure so you can deliver an ISV quality result

• Establish SOA governance & metadata to ensure teams not working in isolation, S/B creating shared and managed assets

Mike Gilpin

+1 301/216-0995

mgilpin@forrester.com

www.forrester.com

Thank you

Entire contents © 2004 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Upcoming ebizQ Webinars

•November 18 - Adopting SOA: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

• November 30 - Reducing Costs & Risk through Total Business Visibility

• December 2 - Fundamentals of Developing SOA Applications

• December 7 - Aligning Processes and Implementation with SOA Goals: The Case for Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

• December 14 - Optimizing Business Performance with SOA

Upcoming WebinarsUpcoming Webinars