Case Study ZapNote: The Hartford

The insurance industry is leading the economy in the adoption of Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), and The Hartford is an early adopter of these technologies among insurance companies. When it became necessary to update an agent tool that required integration to a heterogeneous collection of back-end systems, taking an SOA approach was a natural fit for them.

The Hartford realized early in this project that they needed to acquire a Web Services management (WSM) solution, so they established formal selection criteria, invited several vendors to participate, and narrowed the selection down to two vendors. They then put those two vendors through an exhaustive, three-week proof-of-concept in order to determine which vendor would meet their needs.

This case study details The Hartford’s selection process, and the criteria they used to make the selection. As an early adopter, The Hartford’s approach can serve as a useful lesson for companies in many industries considering a WSM solution.

Following An Architecture For Web Services

Even if not geared initially as a Web service, the structure of the applications makes it easier to add the Web services later. The platform “enables project teams to deliver systems ready for a services-oriented-architecture in phases,” says Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink, an XML and Web-services analyst firm. An application could first be given connectivity to HTTP, then at a later date get the benefit of having its output parsed into XML to keep in step with user requirements, he notes.

Read more at: InternetWeek

Wakesoft Launches New Architecture Platform for Delivering Services-Oriented Systems Today

“While Service Oriented Architecture initiatives are beginning to take hold in enterprises today, project teams still have to meet short-term delivery requirements,” said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink. “The Wakesoft Architecture Platform provides a structure that enables project teams to deliver SOA-ready systems in phases, delivering positive ROI at every step — a key differentiator in this market.”

Read more at: Wakesoft Press Release

Bonus Edition: Web services management

Web services have unique properties that make them particularly difficult to manage, according to Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst with the consulting group ZapThink, which specializes in Web services.

“They’re different from other applications in that one of their advantages is that they’re loosely coupled and dynamically bound, and really are only an interface between applications. So when you say you need to manage them, you’re talking about managing an interface.” Making management even more difficult, he says, is that if the Web service provides links to an external service, you don’t have any control over that external service, and “how can you manage something over which you have no control? And how can you test it without putting it into production?”

Read more at: TechTarget

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting Partnership Landscape

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting for Professional Services Organizations

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting for Enterprise End-Users

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SOA within professional services organizations from three perspectives: from the point of view of the consulting firm, who must understand how its business must change; from the perspective of the enterprise user, who must select and manage a consultant; and from the point of view of software vendors who wish to work with consultants to help them meet the needs of their customers.

AmberPoint shines light on Web application performance

“There are a number of products that let users monitor service-level agreements,” says Jason Bloomberg, an analyst with ZapThink. “But what fewer products do is provide control of software that drives those agreements. AmberPoint has the alerting system as well as the control.”

Bloomberg says the challenge that AmberPoint and other start-ups face is the small window of opportunity they have before major vendors such as BMC Software, CA, HP and Tivoli enter the market.

Read more at: NetworkWorld

Overview of Web Services Management

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