Layer 7 Technologies

This tag is associated with 66 posts

Application governance cannot be ignored on the cloud

By admin ⋅ July 29, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

“Governance is really strong right now and for a couple of reasons,” said Ronald Schmelzer, sr. analyst and managing partner at ZapThink. “Companies are realizing that building services and putting them up there just won’t work. You want the services to be used and you want the main benefit of SOA, and that is reuse. But the flipside is, they may use these services in ways not anticipated.”

Schmelzer said Layer 7 has historically done a good job with policy definition and policy management.

Regarding SOA in the cloud, Schmelzer said he sees promising signs. Companies now are looking at SOA and realizing they may need to improve their architectures. “It looks like the trend is moving to an architectural focus,” said Schmelzer, “rather than IT managers just saying, ‘oh let’s just go buy another ESB.’”

ZapThink SOA Implementation Roadmap 3.0

By Ronald Schmelzer ⋅ September 15, 2008 ⋅ 6 comments

Download or purchase ZapThink’s popular “ZapThink SOA Implementation Roadmap” poster!

ZapThink Announces Major Update to Popular SOA Implementation Roadmap Poster

By admin ⋅ September 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

ZapThink, the industry’s foremost experts, advisers, and educators in the field of Service-Oriented Architecture, is responding to customer demand with today’s publication of the third version of its popular “ZapThink SOA Implementation Roadmap” poster. The company distributed over 100,000 copies of its first two versions of the poster, the first in 2003 and then updated in 2005. The latest version adds cutting-edge thought leadership in SOA, includes detail on architectural artifacts, and expands coverage of SOA Quality, Enterprise Mashups, and more.

Practical SOA: Insurance

By Jason Bloomberg ⋅ May 23, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Presentations from ZapThink’s Practical SOA for Insurance event on May 16, 2008. Presented as a 232-slide PowerPoint in pdf format (large file). Agenda as follows:

Session title	Time	Details
Welcome &SOA Adoption Trends in Insurance	08:30-09:30	Presenter: Jason Bloomberg, ZapThink, LLC What are current, worldwide SOA adoption trends? How is SOA impacting the Insurance industry? As Insurance companies face significant market-shaping challenges, how will IT be able to respond to those challenges through SOA? How can Insurance companies learn from other sectors with regards to SOA adoption? What is a practical SOA roadmap for the Insurance industry?
Industry Standards Based SOA: Using Standards to Jump Start SOA Projects	09:30-10:00	Presenter: Frank Neugebauer, Sr. Enterprise Architect, ACORD The ACORD Corporation is embarking on a new way of developing standards that incorporates a model-driven approach based on five facets; business dictionary, component model, service maps, information model, and capability model. Each facet builds and leverages the other but more importantly, each can be used to provide a foundation of SOA projects. This session outlines how ACORD standards – specifically the ACORD Standards Framework – can be used to jump start SOA projects. Learn how ACORD standards can jump start SOA component design. Learn how ACORD standards can jump start SOA process design. Learn how ACORD standards can serve as the foundation for insurance Web Services.
Coffee Break	10:00-10:15
Case Study in SOA: Insurance Industry	10:15-11:00	Presenter: Benjamin Moreland, Director, Foundation Services, The Hartford The Hartford, through their SOA Maturity Model, created a long-term SOA strategy as part of the EA program in 2003. This has allowed them to build a strong foundation, implement effective SOA governance and continue to leverage successful deployments of platforms, services and standards. This presentation will describe the Maturity Model used, lessons learned and benefits that The Hartford has experienced the last 5+ years. Think strategically, act tactically SOA must be planned SOA without governance will fail
The 3 C’s of SOA and Integration Quality: Complete, Collaborative, Continuous	11:00-12:00	Presenter: Chris Kraus, iTKO LISA Product Manager Enterprises are rapidly reaching the Tipping Point of increased change and complexity in IT. While the industry has developed agile tools for integrating and leveraging new and existing technologies — our ability to ensure quality must keep up with the pace of change that business drives. Quality must be baked into the entire lifecycle of the application, from design time, to change time and runtime, and not relegated to a pre-production “acceptance” phase. This presentation will provide practical examples for how developers and QA teams can work together to test and validate SOA workflows that span multiple application tiers, from the web UI, to services protocols, messaging/ESB frameworks, and implementation layers. Ensuring complete, collaborative and continuous quality to support SOA design, development and governance Identifying points of Risk in SOA and integration projects Methods for implementing testing processes at every phase of the application lifecycle Gaining participation and buy-in for quality across the extended organization
Lunch Break	12:00-13:00	Enjoy a gourmet lunch and network with your peers
Leveraging Pre-Built Services to Accelerate Your SOA and Deliver Value to Your Business	13:00-14:00	Presenter: Chris Connell, SVP Services, SEEC Learn how leading insurance carriers are taking a practical approach to SOA by leveraging pre-built SOA components to accelerate their SOA through the creation of shared services layer to rapidly meet the needs of their business. Hear how services common to Agent Enablement, Customer Self Service and CSR Enablement can be used – and re-used and how a number of carriers are delivering on the promise of SOA in less time and with less cost. Pre-built, standard based components are accelerating SOA initiatives across insurance and delivering significant value to the business. A shared service layer of common and industry specific components rapidly enables carriers to break down the silo’s associated with legacy systems and achieve interoperability. Leveraging pre-built services takes costs out of IT initiatives and provides a consistent, lower total cost alternative – enabling carriers to do more with less.
Changing Mainframe SOA Economics	14:00-15:00	Presenter: Dan Finerty, Director, Product Marketing, DataDirect Shadow Survey the broad expanse of the insurance industry and change is everywhere. Mergers, consolidations, new markets, new competition – issues that demand organizations increase their business agility or face obsolescence. Once dominant with superior mainframe technologies, insurance carriers are increasingly turning to SOA and Web services to expand the interoperability of their legacy infrastructures. This presentation tackles the economics of mainframe SOA and how new technologies can dramatically impact how the Insurance industry exploits mainframe technologies as an enabler for future growth. Find out about the latest SOA Methodologies and Best Practices Improving architectural skills and methods for SOA Moving SOA past the Web Services stage Determining, calculating, and realizing a Return on Investment for SOA
Coffee Break	15:00-15:15
The role of Identity in SOA deployments	15:15-16:00	Presenter: K. Scott Morrison, Layer 7 Technologies Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the new deployment model for Enterprise Architecture. SOA however extends the enterprise and its transactions beyond traditional security boundaries. This has the unintended effect of bringing the issues of identity, privacy, and governance to the fore. Technologies such as WS-Trust, WS-Policy, XACML and SAML, have been developed to solve the technical aspects of these issues. In order to properly manage them, however, SOA deployments need to implement a policy layer that decouples the business logic from the rest of the infrastructure. This talk will introduce the problem in the context of a case study for distributed data management, and will present the concepts of a Policy management layer, along with an introduction to the various technologies involved.
SOA Infrastructure: Laying the Foundation for IT Productivity	16:00-16:45	Presenter: Franco Castaldini – Director, SOA Product Marketing, Software AG Laying an enterprise-class foundation provides your enterprise with a structured and scalable platform to grow your SOA. With so many architectural and technological options to consider, what is the right infrastructure required for successful SOA adoption. You’ll hear how leading companies have implemented their SOA infrastructure, what did they implement to provide IT with greater productivity and responsiveness. Architectural Do’s and Don’ts for SOA What’s critical to a successful SOA implementation Case studies on successful SOA deployments

Practical SOA London

By Jason Bloomberg ⋅ April 29, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

All of the presentations from ZapThink’s Practical SOA event in London, UK on April 25, 2008.

The presentations include the following:

Welcome & World-Wide SOA Adoption Trends in 2008, Presenter: Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink, LLC

Case Study in SOA: GE Capital Solutions, Presenter: Nicolas Farges, Technical Architect, GE Capital Solutions Europe.

Case Study in SOA: ABN Amro – Achieving Enterprise Scale SOA, Presenter: Roy Varughese, Chief Architect, ABN AMRO (Global Clients)

Enterprise SOA patterns, Presenter: Francois Lascelles, Director of Client Solutions, Layer 7 Technologies

A Complete Strategy for Testing Web services, Presenter: Rix Groenboom, Parasoft

Redefining the Economics of Mainframe SOA, Presenter: David Little, Senior Technical Consultant (Shadow Products), DataDirect

Recession-Proofing your Company with SOA, Presenter: Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, Zapthink

251-slide PowerPoint in pdf format (large file).

ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA: London, UK – April 25, 2008 – Sneak Peek

By Ronald Schmelzer ⋅ April 14, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Special ZapThink “Sneak Preview” of Practical SOA: London, UK event on April 25, 2008 features:

Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink

Nicolas Farges, Technical Architect, GE Capital Solutions Europe

Roy Varughese, Chief Architect, ABN AMRO (Global Clients)

Francois Lascelles, Director of Client Solutions, Layer 7 Technologies

Rix Groenboom, Parasoft

Peter Steel, EMEA Technology Manager, 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: London, UK event on April 25, 2008.

Layer 7 Technologies Introduces Drop-in Solution for Mainframe SOA Enablement, Interoperability and Governance

By admin ⋅ February 25, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

“Implementing effective SOA requires incorporating all of the key assets of enterprise IT, including legacy and third-party services,” said Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink, LLC. “Part of this vision requires exposing XML and Web services interfaces to mainframe applications in order to give enterprise architects broader reach and value for their architectural investment.”

Software AG Strengthens SOA Security with Layer 7 Partnership

By admin ⋅ February 6, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

“SOA governance presents a complex set of challenges, because it involves policy creation, communication, management, and enforcement across the Service lifecycle,” said Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner at ZapThink. “The combination of CentraSite and Layer 7 Technologies’ SecureSpan security and policy enforcement capabilities provides enterprises with a comprehensive governance and security solution that covers the gamut from policy definition through enforcement.”

The Insurance Networking News’ Web Services & SOA Summit Hosts ZapThink’s Founder, Industry Experts

By admin ⋅ January 28, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Ron Schmelzer, author and founding partner of ZapThink, a Baltimore SOA research and advisory firm, gave attendees at the Insurance Networking News’ first annual Web Services and SOA Summit: A Reality Check, some learned advice on how best to proceed with their service oriented architecture strategies.

“There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace about what SOA is and what it can do,” Schmelzer told attendees. “What you should be talking about is an architecture that is oriented toward a service. Then ask: what do we want the service to do?”

Schmelzer, who addressed C-level executives from small, medium and large size insurance companies at the event, held January 23, 2008 in New York, cited culture as one of the primary obstacles to successful SOA implementation.

Software AG Strengthens SOA Security with Layer 7 Partnership

By admin ⋅ November 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

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