Sensedia: Focused Solutions for Cost-Conscious SOA Governance

Choosing the right governance tooling requires careful consideration of specific attributes of the enterprise domain, including an inventory of the major SOA resources such as data, Services, and processes, as well as interactions and dependencies, and how all relate to the notions of policy management, service agreements, and security.

SOA governance, both at design time and run time, is a recognized requirement for all SOA initiatives, and as a result, there are several products on the market that address such needs. These products, however, tend to be enterprise-class, comprehensive solutions with enterprise-class pricing. Many organizations, however, require a more focused solution at a more palatable price point.

One vendor who is targeting design time SOA governance at such a price point is Sensedia. Sensedia offers design time SOA governance products that enable enterprises to manage and reuse their SOA and other software development assets. Sensedia’s products reduce redundant development, accelerating ROI and improving SOA governance through the identification, creation, management and quality analysis of SOA project assets.

What Cloud Computing Can Teach Us About SOA

There’s been a lot of talk about what SOA could do for cloud computing, but ZapThink’s Ronald Schmelzer recently flipped the equation, pondering what cloud computing can do for SOA.

Schmelzer’s conclusion: Cloud computing could finally help everyone understand that SOA is not just standards-based integration by taking ESBs out of the equation and pushing companies toward virtualization of services, which in turn will require thinking more abstractly about services:

This brings us to probably the biggest benefit of this whole cloud computing hoopla — a change in the way we think about Services. … for those that have equated SOA with Web Services and ESB, they might see this looming cloud computing movement as the next iteration of their SOA efforts. For these readers, we would say, ‘finally!’

Of course, these things are never simple. Schmelzer’s piece points out all the pros to cloud computing and SOA, but it’s actually part two of a conversation began by Schmelzer’s colleague, Jason Bloomberg. In part I, Bloomberg lists all the problems with cloud computing, paying particular attention to how SOA fits into the equation. Bloomberg writes that, while theoretically virtualization and SOA fit together nicely, in practice, they’re separated by political structure:

Read more at: IT Business Edge

Progress Software Names New CEO

Overall, Progress “has quite a few good assets in the SOA and integration markets,” said ZapThink analyst Ronald Schmelzer via e-mail. “However, they are in many ways a second-tier vendor competing against the much more entrenched incumbents: IBM, Oracle, Software AG, HP and Microsoft.”

Market consolidation, such as Oracle’s purchase of BEA, has further cemented the position of the incumbents, Schmelzer added.

But this in turn “makes Progress continue to be a good second choice when end-users aren’t first considering their existing incumbent vendors,” he said. “Without Progress itself getting acquired by one of the ‘big guys,’ I don’t see how this dynamic will change.”

Read more at: PC World

ZapThink Announces SOA for Managers Certification Course at IMPACT 2009

BALTIMORE, MD (PRunderground) March 26, 2009 — ZapThink announces today the availability of its SOA for Managers course co-located at IBM’s IMPACT 2009 conference in Las Vegas, NV on May 3, 2009. In this one-day course, attendees will get detailed guidance and expertise in how to implement and manage SOA with the latest best practices and methods. The one day event will feature Jason Bloomberg and Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partners with ZapThink as lecturers and contributors.

“Companies want to know how apply SOA best practices to enhance and optimize their existing investments in IT,” said Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partner with ZapThink. “This one-day, practical event will give enterprises of all sizes, architecture practitioners, consulting firms, and technology vendors the best practices and practical implementation knowledge they are seeking.”

Key topics addressed during the one-day event on May 3, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV include:

• Fundamentals of SOA
• Defining SOA Success
• SOA: A Business Service View
• Service Composition: Supporting Business Process with Services
• Overcoming SOA Challenges
• SOA Funding and Budgeting challenges
• SOA Pitfalls and growing pains
• SOA Project Management best practices
• Governance and security strategies for SOA
• Ensuring EA and SOA organizational success
• SOA and Legacy
• Iterative approaches to SOA projects
• IT Governance Feedback Loop
• The future of the Service-oriented Enterprise application

“Impact 2009 includes more than 300 client speakers and exciting keynotes to help attendees learn how to use SOA to reuse existing investments, cut costs and increase revenue,” said Sandy Carter, VP, IBM SOA and WebSphere. “By offering ZapThink’s SOA for Managers workshop, we are adding another key element to help attendees advance their SOA knowledge.”

Attendees will gain a working understanding of SOA, understand how SOA can benefit their organization, learn about the pitfalls that organizations implementing SOA face, and how to avoid them, and receive a “SOA for Managers” Certificate or a “SOA for Managers” endorsement of an existing Licensed ZapThink Architect certification.

IMPACT 2009 is the industry’s premier SOA conference, offering attendees access to key business leaders who provide practical knowledge based on their personal SOA experiences. For more information on IMPACT, or to register for the event visit: http://www.ibm.com/soa/impact2009/vip.

For more information about the ZapThink SOA for Managers Certification course and additional ZapThink training events, visit http://www.zapthink.com/eventreg.html. Early registration discounts are available.

Read more at: ZapThink

Does Cloud Computing Hold Water? (Part II)

In our previous ZapFlash, ZapThink Managing Partner Jason Bloomberg explored the recent upswing in interest in Cloud Computing and evaluated its merits vis-à-vis Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). In that ZapFlash, Jason concluded that cloud computing is an ill-defined term that has turned into a bandwagon that vendors, consultants, and end-users …

SOA growth and change: TechTarget survey shows SaaS, BPM emerging

The emphasis on integration “illustrates how far we’ve gotten from the original understanding of what SOA is,” said Ronald Schmelzer, managing partner at analyst firm ZapThink LLC in Baltimore. “It reflects the fact that 90%-plus of people thinking they’re doing SOA are really doing Web services/enterprise application integration.

“They just got rid of the adapters,” Schmelzer continued. But, he asserted, “SOA has to be an architectural approach.

He traces this situation to vendor marketing. “I think we can squarely blame the vendors for this,” he said. “They say ‘if you want to do SOA, buy our product.’ That’s a complete fallacy.”

Read more at: SearchSOA

Cloud Computing and SOA: Same but Different

Presentation for the Cordys Webinar earlier in March 2009 on the topic of “Cloud Computing and SOA”.

Key Takeaways:

• Cloud provides a good excuse to stop thinking about the ESB as central (or even necessary) for SOA
• Cloud, cloud, cloud — the same hype as SOA, SOA, SOA?
• From a SOA perspective, is Cloud Computing SaaS+Virtualization + SOA?
• SOA provides the fundamental architecture perspective on making loosely coupled, location independent, virtualized capabilities possible.
• Cloud is a way to apply SOA in a virtualized manner
• Will Cloud be the new hype center?

ZapThink on Dave Linthicum’s Cloud Computing Podcast

Dave and Jason Bloomberg from ZapThink talk about Jason’s recent ZapFlash where he pointed out the downsides of the hype surrounding cloud computing.

Read more at: Cloud Computing Podcast

Does Cloud Computing Hold Water?

One of ZapThink’s favorite roles is that of iconoclast. When we see a growing hype bubble, we love being the ones to pop it. We relished dispelling the confusion over the SOA is dead meme, and now it’s time to let a little air out of the latest gas bag: …

Is Middleware or Poor Planning the Problem?

Middleware is supposed to solve integration problems, but some say its proliferation may cause more integration problems than it solves. For instance, in November, ZapThink wrote a piece arguing that one reason SOA hasn’t cut integration costs is because companies are using too much middleware.

Read more at: IT Business Edge