About the SOA(service oriented architecture)

[Lian Liming]

Hi all,

I have been reading a lot of articles that mention SOA(service
oriented architecture), and also in those articles, this architecture
has been said to be how successful and revolutionary. But these
articles have not given a detail explanation about what SOA really is,
how to implement this architecture step by step. So I am really
confused with this conception. How is the SOA different with the
traditional architecture?

And now I am working on Java, so I are also very interested with how
to implement this architecture with java technology. Have anyone in
this group had any experience of using SOA? or any recommended online
resource about the detail explanation of implementing SOA with java
technology?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Roedy Green]

I have been reading a lot of articles that mention SOA(service
oriented architecture),

<curmudgeonmode>
It sounds like one of those vague feel good technologies for mangers.
They can to conferences on it in the Cayman Islands and not have their
brains stretched. There will be lots of "cloud" diagrams drawn on
whiteboards to teach it. There will be no actual software product or
APIs. It is a marketing word like "GL/70" an ingredient that makes new
software gleam and already sold software obsolete.
</curmudgeonmode>

 

[Patrick May]

I have been reading a lot of articles that mention SOA(service
oriented architecture), and also in those articles, this
architecture has been said to be how successful and
revolutionary. But these articles have not given a detail
explanation about what SOA really is, how to implement this
architecture step by step. So I am really confused with this
conception. How is the SOA different with the traditional
architecture?

There is a Yahoo! group on this very topic:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/service-orientated-architecture

The definition of SOA has been discussed ad nauseum there. Consensus
is somewhat hard to achieve because many of the Web Services vendors
attempt to define SOA as synonymous with Web Services. It is not. My
preferred definition is that SOA refers to a design that incorporates,
at a minimum, the following techniques:

- Distributed components (services) are accessed via interfaces.
- Components register with some type of lookup service to make
themselves available to clients (which may be other services)
- Clients use the lookup service to find the interface(s) that
meet their requirements.
- Clients dynamically bind to the services found via the lookup
service.

And now I am working on Java, so I are also very interested with
how to implement this architecture with java technology. Have anyone
in this group had any experience of using SOA? or any recommended
online resource about the detail explanation of implementing SOA
with java technology?

One of the best technologies for implementing an SOA is Jini
(http://www.jini.org). I work for a company that sells an SOA product
based on Jini technology, I would encourage anyone developing large
distributed systems to at least be aware of Jini.

Regards,

Patrick