Architecting the SOA registry/repository

Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst ZapThink LLC, said the new Flashline automation features could be helpful, but it is too early to tell how Stack’s approach will fair in the emerging SOA registry/repository market.

“I could easily see how Flashline’s new automation and harvesting capabilities could be quite useful for companies who are building SOA implementations,” the analyst said. “Only the market will tell, however, if customers will favor Flashline’s approach over, say, the business user-centered change time capabilities of Infravio X-Registry or the policy lifecycle support in Systinet Registry.”

Bloomberg also notes that Flashline is not alone in offering harvesting technology.

“Flashline is also following somewhat in the footsteps of Software AG and Fujitsu’s CentraSite, which also harvests Web Services for inclusion into composite applications,” the analyst said. “The challenge for all of these vendors is that customer requirements are a moving target, as enterprises are still putting together the pieces of a successful SOA plan.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

Managing SOA Metadata: Registeries or Repositories?

Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at consultancy ZapThink, offered a helicopter’s-eye view: “As services in the enterprise proliferate and companies build out their SOA implementations, the structure of corporate technology teams must change to enable flexible, agile service development, testing and support.”

Such efforts will stretch far beyond simply using the registry, which is ultimately just one of many elements in the service life cycle, and companies will rely on what Bloomberg calls “service life-cycle teams,” composed of diverse personnel from both IT and lines of business, including business analysts, architects, developers, testers and support staff.

“Fundamentally, SOA cannot scale without effective collaboration among the members of these teams,” asserted Bloomberg. “Furthermore, as enterprise SOA implementations grow, consistent communication among such SOA implementation teams must allow participants to collaborate regardless of each individual’s role, skill set or development environment.”

Read more at: SD Times

An SOA to Govern All?

While IBM’s new offering is comprehensive, Big Blue isn’t the first to play in this space, according to ZapThink analyst Jason Bloomberg. Existing leaders in SOA governance include Infravio, LogicLibrary, Mercury Systinet, WebLayers and Flashline, he said.

“The bottom line is that this market is still in flux, as companies figure out that SOA governance is more than simply managing the SOA project, but rather implementing corporate governance by leveraging SOA,” Bloomberg said.

Read more at: InternetNews

IBM looks to govern SOA

Ron Schmelzer, a senior analyst with ZapThink LLC, praised Big Blue’s latest announcement.

“No enterprise will build services in an SOA that are ungoverned and unmanaged,” he said. “While IBM is new to the market with their registry/repository capabilities, if their previous patterns hold, they will increasingly incorporate these offerings into more of their solution offerings, making it competitive quickly in the market.”

Schmelzer liked the multidisciplinary approach IBM is taking to the governance problem, incorporating three of its main software lines.

“Governance requires significant leg work in establishing policies, communicating them, measuring compliance and then mitigating changes,” he said. “These require human activities that in turn require professional services capabilities if the customers can’t do them on their own. Therefore, IBM’s approach to the market is remarkable in its breadth of capability and holistic nature that includes people, process, as well as technology.”

Read more at: SearchWebServices

SOA Software declares independence for UDDI registries

The centrality of the registry/repository was also supported by Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst, ZapThink LLC, in his white paper, “Making Sense of SOA Governance, Service Lifecycle Management, Registries & Repositories,” published this month. He argued that it is hard to do SOA governance without a registry/repository at the heart of the system. In one of the more optimistic notes in the white paper, he said that key vendors are making progress in providing architects with the tools they need for governance.

Read more at: SearchWebServices

Making Sense of SOA Governance, Service Lifecycle Management, Registries & Repositories

The Service-oriented architecture (SOA) marketplace is experiencing substantial flux, as enterprises hammer out their SOA initiatives, and vendors position their offerings to meet their customers’ needs. One particularly dynamic corner of this broader market is the SOA governance segment. The vendors in the SOA governance space actually position themselves into one or more of the following market niches: registry/repository products, policy management tools, Service lifecycle management platforms, or SOA governance tools. Even though these segments are in flux, they all share a core capability: the ability to manage the metadata that form the lifeblood of every SOA implementation.

ZapForum Podcast: Avoiding Complexity in SOA

ZapForum Podcast for March 3,2006 features

Guest Expert Charles Stack, CEO Flashline.

Listen to this Podcast and you will:

• Be able to deal with the inherent complexity of IT
• Understand how to organize your enterprise architecture initiative to meet business needs
• Learn how to avoid the pitfalls with enterprise architecture
• Learn about three core patterns for SOA
• Understand the relationship between governance and architecture

LogicLibrary Offers Integrated Repository and Registry

“It is important for enterprise users to understand that comparing UDDI and repositories is an apples-to-oranges comparison, because UDDI is a standard and repositories are products,” said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst, ZapThink LLC. “In fact, a well-designed repository, with strong UDDI support, enables organizations to most efficiently govern and utilize their software assets. The best SOA and Web Services products provide customers with multiple approaches, giving them the flexibility to choose what is most beneficial for their organization. It is refreshing to see LogicLibrary stand up for what customers really want: a broad range of deployment options all working together.”

Read more at: LogicLibrary Press Release

Building on the big one

Ron Schmelzer, a senior analyst at the Waltham, Mass.-based industry research firm ZapThink LLC, said he expects LogicLibrary to grow “pretty rapidly in the next few years.” The firm’s competitors include Cleveland-based Flashline Inc. and Fremont, Calif.-based VA Software Corp.

“They’re a very pragmatic, experienced group,” Schmelzer said. “And LogicLibrary is selling a highly flexible product, toward which there’s been a trend in the past few years.”

“They’re definitely on the cutting edge of software development, which Pittsburgh’s not known for, and that will hopefully attract other firms and encourage other startups,” he added. “They’ve shown they can hire and attract talent to the area.”

Read more at: Pittsburgh Business Times

IBM deal turns LogicLibrary into profitable firm

Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst at ZapThink LLC, a Waltham, Mass.-based industry research firm, said LogicLibrary has good reason to celebrate.

“This is a very large deal for LogicLibrary,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “IBM put them through a rigorous testing and evaluation process, and they beat out several competitors. It really shows the LogicLibrary product meets IBM’s needs in a very scalable, high-volume environment.”

Mr. Bloomberg said it was a coup that a small firm like LogicLibrary got its software into a behemoth like IBM, which has 15,000 developers.

“But what really mattered more to IBM was (Logidex’s) scalability and functionality rather than the size of the company,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Read more at: MSNBC and Pittsburgh Business Times