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ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA : New York / New Jersey – Finance, Pharma, Media, Governance, Quality, and Management Sneak Peek

By Ronald Schmelzer ⋅ March 3, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Special ZapThink “Sneak Preview” Podcast for January 8, 2008 features:

Ron Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink

Ben Moreland, Director, Foundation Services, The Hartford

Mike Kavis, Executive Director, Architecture, Catalina Marketing

Jim Mackay, CMO, iTKO

Al Aghili, CTO and Founder, Managed Methods

Martin Milani, CTO, Tidal Software

Dan Finerty, Director, Product Marketing, DataDirect

Listen to this Podcast and you will get a “Sneak Peek” at what all the presenters will be speaking about at our Practical SOA: New York / New Jersey – Finance, Pharma, Media, Governance, Quality, and Management event in Newark, New Jersey, on March 25, 2008.

iTKO LISA Combines SOA Monitoring with Advanced Test Execution Capabilities

By admin ⋅ February 4, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

“High visibility and continuous validation go hand in hand when attempting to manage the performance of SOA applications throughout the Service Lifecycle,” said Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partner at Zapthink, LLC. “Ensuring SOA quality requires determining the root causes of issues in the Services as well as at lower infrastructural layers, in addition to having a management view into the processes and applications so risk can be better mitigated.”

ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA Energy & Utilities Sneak Peek

By Ronald Schmelzer ⋅ January 25, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Special ZapThink “Sneak Preview” Podcast for January 24, 2008 features:

James Jones, Director, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), BP

Rusty Foreman, DCT Enterprise Architecture, BP

Patrick Bhirdo, Endigo Energy

Richard Green, Principal Analyst, DTE Energy

David Anderson, Solution Architect, BEA Systems, Inc

John Michelsen, Founder & Chief Architect, iTKO

Dan Finerty, Director, Product Marketing, DataDirect Shadow

Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink

Listen to this Podcast and you will get a “Sneak Peek” at what all the presenters will be speaking about at our Practical SOA: Energy and Utilities event in Houston, TX on February 5, 2008.

European SOA: Ahead of the Curve?

By admin ⋅ January 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I’m in Germany right now, looking forward to a session at ZapThink’s Practical SOA in Frankfurt event tomorrow. I’ll be joining some peers from companies like T-Mobile, Swisscom, Novartis and SwissLife who are going to be sharing their own SOA success stories.

Why does SOA seem to be moving forward a little faster in Europe than in North America? We’ve posed these kinds of questions in our surveys and forums, and often it seems that stateside, the term “SOA” can polarize some IT teams – it’s an “either/or” decision at the architectural level.

Europe leads with SOA: if so, why?

By admin ⋅ January 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

ZapThink’s Ron Schmelzer observes that there is widespread belief (which he mainly disagrees with) that “enterprise architecture as a practice is more widely respected and practiced in Europe than it is in the US. Some believe that the IT community in the US is perceived as developer-centric, coding cowboys that care not a whit about architecture.”

Still, he observes that “most large European-based IT shops see enterprise architecture as a way to guarantee that projects don’t go off into the weeds with developers doing their thing without a central coordinating philosophy and organization. In essence, they see a distinct difference between architecture and development, and the roles of architects and developers, whereas that precise topic seems to be an item for debate in the US.”

Overcoming SOA Insecurity

By admin ⋅ January 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

SOA allows IT organizations to externalize identity management outside of the application, said ZapThink analyst Ron Schmelzer. That eases the problem, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, he noted. “You have to specify details for each user or service,” he said, offering an example of an online merchant. “You can see this [inventory] data, but you can’t get at the credit card authorization service.”

A key thing to check for is how the SOA is using third-party components, and whether those components are functioning properly, said ZapThink’s Schmelzer. “Take down one key service, [and] you can take down [the entire app],” he noted. “Can you imagine what would happen if Google Maps went down? How many applications would I kill?” In the past, that would have been a problem for only Google, he noted, but with SOA, the impact is so much wider. “The greatest benefit of SOA–[the ability to share services]–is also the greatest problem of SOA.”

ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA Frankfurt Sneak Peek

By Ronald Schmelzer ⋅ January 8, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Special ZapThink “Sneak Preview” Podcast for January 8, 2008 features:

Ron Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink

Ingo Arnold, Enterprise Systems Architect, Novartis Pharma AG

Wolfgang Otto, Principal Systems Engineer, BEA Systems

Florian Mösch, Vice President Enterprise Integration & Architecture, T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH

Jason English, iTKO, iTKO

Dr. Waldemar Lohrer, Senior Berater, Swiss Life

Tim Hall, SOA Center Product Management, Hewlett-Packard

Lars Drexler, VP Sales Enablement, Software AG

Listen to this Podcast and you will get a “Sneak Peek” at what all the presenters will be speaking about at our Practical SOA event in Frankfurt, Germany, on January 15, 2008.

Overcoming SOA Insecurity

By admin ⋅ January 3, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

SOA allows IT organizations to externalize identity management outside of the application, said ZapThink analyst Ron Schmelzer. That eases the problem, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, he noted. “You have to specify details for each user or service,” he said, offering an example of an online merchant. “You can see this [inventory] data, but you can’t get at the credit card authorization service.”

Agree on core standards with business partners. A travel Web site sells airline tickets. Its partner sites rent cars. But how does a company manage user identities in a way that it is meaningful to its partners? asked Schmelzer. “This is known as ‘identity propagation,’ where all participants know who the end user is.” Standards such as WS-Federation and Liberty Alliance help manage this problem, he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean everyone has implemented them,” so it’s imperative for all parties to meet face-to-face and agree on which standard to implement.

A key thing to check for is how the SOA is using third-party components, and whether those components are functioning properly, said ZapThink’s Schmelzer. “Take down one key service, [and] you can take down [the entire app],” he noted. “Can you imagine what would happen if Google Maps went down? How many applications would I kill?” In the past, that would have been a problem for only Google, he noted, but with SOA, the impact is so much wider. “The greatest benefit of SOA–[the ability to share services]–is also the greatest problem of SOA.”

Practical SOA for Financial Services Presentations

By Jason Bloomberg ⋅ September 27, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Presentations given at ZapThink’s Practical SOA for Financial Services event in London on September 27, 2007.

Presenters and their presentations include:

Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink: Welcome & SOA Adoption Trends for Financial Services and the World
Michael Poulin, Head of Business Analysis & Web Delivery, Fidelity Investment International: Case Study in SOA: The Next Steps in the Organically Growing SOA
Jim Mackay, Chief Marketing Officer, iTKO: SOA Quality and the Financial Services Industry
David Davies, VP Products, Corizon: Agility at the User Interface
William Morgan, Lead Technical Architect for Financial Services in the UK, LogicaCMG: SOA Case Study: Homeserve GB – Composite applications for insurance customer care
David Wright, Director, Global Financial Services, Software AG webMethods: Real Value from SOA and BPM: How Financial Institutions can transform their Businesses and Get There Faster

Listen to the Podcast with previews of these presentations!

This document is a 75-page pdf with all of the slides presented at the event.

Attendees of the event can get this file by completing the emailed survey.

ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA Financial Services

By Jason Bloomberg ⋅ September 20, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Special ZapThink “Sneak Preview” Podcast for September 20, 2007 features:

Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink

Michael Poulin, Head of Business Analysis & Web Delivery, Fidelity Investment International

Jim Mackay, Chief Marketing Officer, iTKO

David Davies, Vice President, Products, Corizon

William Morgan, Lead Technical Architect for Financial Services in the UK, LogicaCMG

David Wright, Director, Global Financial Services Software AG webMethods

Listen to this Podcast and you will get a “Sneak Peek” at what all the presenters spoke about at our Practical SOA for Financial Services event in London, England, on September 27, 2007.

Hear from these speakers on the following topics:

Jason Bloomberg – SOA Adoption Trends for Financial Services and the World
Michael Poulin – Case Study in SOA: The Next Steps in the Organically Growing SOA
Jim Mackay – SOA Quality and the Financial Services Industry
David Davies – Agility at the User Interface
William Morgan – SOA Case Study: Homeserve GB – Composite applications for insurance customer care
David Wright – Real Value from SOA and BPM: How Financial Institutions can transform their Businesses and Get There Faster

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