scribbles of the perennial debugger…
Posts tagged SOA
move aside SOA, here’s SFA
Apr 5th
I haven’t eaten SOA for quite some time now. I haven’t slept with it either. I haven’t heard much about the buzz for some time. So is there really SOA? I do sometimes ask that myself. Is it just a buzzword for salesmen (and IBM & BEA) or is it real? Is it really feasible? My gut feel tells me that this SOA goodness is a real deal. It is just a conglomeration of best practices and best idioms in terms of software architecture throughout computing history. Is it feasible? Yeeeeaaaahhhh!?!? What I mean is, there will not be a system that is fully SOA in every sense. Get real, not even IBM i reckon. There will always be a human factor, there will always be the legacy part, there will always be silos. SOA just glues them together… and presents them as, well… SOA. I guess SOA is more applicable being called SFA. Software Flexibility and Agility. The more you achieve flexibility and agility in reaction to change, the more SFA compliant you are.
SOA reading…
Oct 6th
In line with my long-overdue plans, I have been doing my long-overdue reading as well. Along with the experience that I already accumulated, insights with client’s requirements and overall technical strategies that I have learned so far, I still feel that I need to validate these with some readings.
I have been doing my rounds on this book: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass: Business Value, Planning, and Enterprise Roadmap (IBM’s DelevoperWorks Series) by by Norbert Bieberstein, Sanjay Bose, Marc Fiammante, Keith Jones, Rawn Shah.
The book is a good mix of real-life facts, technical facts (for the techies) and sweet-tongue stuff (for sales and marketing people).
My main enemy when I do my readings: procrastination
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Of SOA brouhaha and self branding
Feb 11th
SOA has been the buzz of the IT world in recent time. And in these recent times I see SOA being realized. Before, I knew that it has only been the buzzword that marketting maniacs used as a punchline (experience tells me that). Well, frankly, SOA still is a buzzword, at least half of the industry. There are organizations that clearly have a clue on what SOA is. There are organizations that use SOA as their designware-based bullshit platform or some may be plainly clueless.
So, what is SOA?
SOA is not a single technology like J2EE, DCOM or CORBA. SOA is a collective term for several domains that enable agile, business driven IT environment. SOA is composed of time-tested business methodologies, business process, organization structures, IT governance, and technical methods. SOA provides, first and foremost, flexibility, that treats biz processess and its underlying IT infrastructure and software assets as components. These components can be reused and orchestrated to address ever-evolving business priorities and requirements from SLAs. In retrospect, SOA encompasses both the business domain and the technical domain.
Self Branding
Self-branding. Quite a strange choice of words. This is a thing I learned from my friend, our Marketing Manager. The primal product/service that you provide in your respective industries is yourself. And every product needs branding, every service needs marketing. Boredom and ever increasing competition at my workplace is pushing me to redefine my self branding. To be kept abreast and at least two steps in advance.
SOA Self Branding
And in my quest to redefine, or shall we say, steer my career to the path I would like it to move, at least in the corporate world I am now. I have taken and cleared Sun’s SCEA, now I am on the hunt for a more specialized certification. I have evaluated several certifications out there that may add value to my branding. And from all of them, I have chosen IBM’s Exam 665: Architectural Design of SOA Solutions as my next target. One thing that led me to this decision is that this exam doesn’t seem to be a cliche yet. Though the takers of this certification is quite few, IBM definitely has a stunner in their portfolio. The extent of this certification is deep indeed. You’ve got to have a good deal of experience in Web Services, SOA, J2EE/.Net and IBM’s SOA tools and principles. So here’s to the next few months of preparation, re-invention and re-orientation; IBM Certified SOA Solution Designer.