Loosely Coupled Thinking : WebServices-IntegrationandInterop

SOA Fatigue

jevdemon — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:33:06 GMT

Dave Linthicum recently blogged about not attending SOA conferences because he is able to determine the core trends and messages they would be promoting. I've thought this about SOA books, reports, trade magazines and online articles for well over...(read more)

Say What?

jevdemon — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:35:00 GMT

Interesting perspective from Randy Heffner (Forrester) in the latest issue of Redmond Magazine: Perhaps Randy is unaware of our work on XML , SOAP and the Web Services Workshops that led to the WS-* specifications . The quote above seems to be inspired...(read more)

SOA and Business Process Conference 2007

jevdemon — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:04:00 GMT

The 2007 Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference will be held from October 29th through November 2nd, 2007 at the Microsoft Conference Center on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA. Customers and partners can learn about Microsoft’s current and...(read more)

BizTalk 24/7

jevdemon — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 03:24:26 GMT

Saravana Kumar just launched a nice aggregation of BizTalk resources at BizTalk 24/7 . Worth a look if you are working with or new to BizTalk....(read more)

How do you define "Composite Applications"?

jevdemon — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:43:00 GMT

While we're all puzzling over how to define SOA let's throw another term into the mix. The term Composite Applications is getting a lot of attention these days. The problem, like SOA, is that there seems to be many differerent opinions on what Composite...(read more)

Nailing Jello to the Wall

jevdemon — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:05:00 GMT

Joe McKendrick has a blog entry about just a bunch of Web Services and SOA. He cites some research from Saugatuck that states "...many companies are merely managing a collection of Web services, and have yet to make a strong commitment to SOA as a management...(read more)

A Round-up of Microsoft SOA Resources

jevdemon — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:31:00 GMT

Microsoft believes that software empowers individuals to accomplish difficult tasks. Our approach towards educating our partners and customers on SOA reflects this belief. For this reason the bulk of our resources are designed to be actionable instead...(read more)

Microsoft and Linux

jevdemon — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:24:00 GMT

If you haven't heard about this already, you owe it to yourself to check this out . The most exciting part of the announcement (imho): Web Services for managing physical and virtual servers : Microsoft and Novell will undertake work to make it easier...(read more)

Hammer Time

jevdemon — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:08:00 GMT

The apparent backlash (if you can call it that) against WS-BPEL 2.0 has begun. I knew things were going to get interesting when I heard Dave Linthicum's SOA Podcast mention BPEL getting " hammered " by both the press and the blogosphere. There are a variety...(read more)

WS-* Specs and Status at a glance

jevdemon — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:03:32 GMT

Below is a slide from an internal event I spoke at last week. Thanks to Jorgen for summarizing the status of these specs. This "status" slide is current as of 8/2/2006.

BizTalk and WF - Which To Use When?

jevdemon — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:12:15 GMT

This came up a lot during my meetings at TechEd so I thought I would re-post some of the stuff I was saying here. Feedback and flames are, as always, highly encouraged.

When Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) was first announced at the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) many attendees incorrectly assumed WF was a replacement for BizTalk Server (BTS). WF and BTS are complementary technologies designed to serve two very different needs:

BTS is a licensed product designed to implement workflow (“orchestrations”) across disparate applications.
WF is a developer framework designed to expose workflow capabilities within your applications.

Since WF is a developer framework there are no fees or licensing restrictions associated with using or deploying it in your solutions or products.

Use BizTalk Server if…

You need to implement system to system (S2S) workflows across disparate applications or platforms.
You need an Enterprise-strength Business Process Management (BPM) suite that enables complex transformations, support for popular application/wire-level protocols and integration with Line of Business (LoB) systems like SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle and JD Edwards.
You need to interface with a Human to Human (H2H) workflow.
You need to take advantage of Business Activity Monitoring (BAM).
You need to map authentication information between Windows and non-Windows systems (Single Sign-On (SSO))
You need to set up and manage trading partners in a B2B scenario.
You need a complete set of tools for managing the infrastructure and scalability of your solutions architecture.

Use Windows Workflow Foundation if…

You need to expose workflow capabilities to end users through your application.
Your application only needs a message or event broker.
You need to build a Human to Human (H2H) workflow capable of interfacing with a System to System (S2S) workflow. SharePoint 2007 includes several predefined Human Workflows built with WF.
You only need workflow or simple business rules and are not interested in the other features that BizTalk Server provides.

TechEd 2006 - Pre-con

jevdemon — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:12:00 GMT

I flew into Boston on a red-eye this AM and boy are my arms tired (sorry!). Last year's TechEd was in Orlando, this year we're in Beantown. The conference seems to be about the same size which is, in technical terms, friggin' huge! I'll snap some pix later if I can find some new batteries for my camera. :(

I attended Ron Jacobs' pre-conference on Software Architecture on Sunday. This was a series of "intro to architecture" sessions from Ron and other smart guys like Vivek Bhatnagar (Microsoft Architect from India - get a blog so I can link to you Vivek!), Scott and David. The sessions did a good job of covering the basics of software architecture for people interested in becoming architects. This was a typical Ron session - entertaining and informative. Ron 's presentations included several pictures from his past ArCast trips around the world. He used a nice analogy about the pyramids of Egypt and architecture planning - there were lots of pictures of pyramids and Ron :)

The session ended with a panel Q&A that Roger and I were honored to be a part of. There were some great discussions about risk mitigation and the role that workflow plays in a solution architecture (my favorite topic!).

The Architecture Cabana is the place to be at TechEd 2006. We've got Chalk Talks, presentations, demos, one on one discussions and lots of free stuff. Some of the more interesting free stuff includes:

"Readings in Service Orientation" - this is the second book in the Architecture Chronicles series and is filled with valuable, actionable information on how to design and implement your own service-oriented solutions.
The Architecture Journal - the latest issue of Architect Journal focuses on data. You can get your own free subscription to Architect Journal here.
"Web Services Security" - this is a new Patterns and Practices book that focuses on securing the services you design and build using WSE 3.0.
SPARK (ppt) - copies of the SPARK materials, designed to "spark" discussions about current and future trends regarding solutions architecture.
Other free stuff (the standard gimmies one might expect at a conference of this scale)

I'm giving a couple of "chalk talks" in the Architecture Cabana on Monday and Tuesday:

6/12 1:30-2:35pm:
Developing Interoperable Business Processes: The State of the Standard

Over the past few years several standards have emerged to address the coordination of messages and transactions within a web services infrastructure. The volume of implementation options can be overwhelming, especially when one considers these options in conjunction with the broad range of advanced web services specifications (WS-*). Standards such as WS-BPEL have been identified as one possible way to provide interoperability across service-enabled processes. BPEL, however, is only one of several standards in the business process space. Which standards should you care about and why? How does one standard differ from another in terms of features? Which standards are being adopted by the platform vendors and which are not? In this chalk talk we will discuss these questions and more. Come discuss the state of business process standards and debate their impact on your current and future development efforts.
6/13 4:40-5:45pm
A Workflow "Manifesto"

The emergence of a flexible, extensible framework like Windows Workflow Foundation enables the application of workflow in ways that may have been impossible in the past. We have defined a “workflow manifesto” to help us to better consider some of these new frontiers for workflow. This talk focuses on the benefits that workflow can bring to your solutions architecture - from service orchestration to page flow and user event brokering. Come discuss, debate and analyze the various opportunities and challenges that exist in applying workflow oriented solutions across a broad range of scenarios.

I'll also be hanging about the Cabana for general schmoozing and architect discussions. C'mon by if you are at the show! (If you are not at the TechEd, the above chalk talks were inspired by presentations I have given at other conferences in the past. Ping me if you would like a copy of either or both of them.)

Ray Ozzie gave a wonderful keynote later in the evening, reflecting on his career (using Virtual Earth to illustrate where he worked) and discussing the future of the software industry. The most interesting concept he discussed was MaaS - Management as a Service. MaaS is the concept of using services to manage remote devices. Interesting idea.

Surprise guest Chloe showed up later - she seemed as confused as we were about why she was there.

Spark, Microsoft and Web 2.0

jevdemon — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 03:18:00 GMT

Dion Hinchcliffe (ZDNet) posted a blog entry on SPARK. Spark is an invitation-only event being held the weekend before the MIX 06 conference (Bill Gates and Tim O'Reilly are doing the keynote together). Spark is an event my team organized to try and bring the SOA, SaaS and Web 2.0 world closer together. How cool is that?

So what exactly is Spark? SPARK is not about Web 2.0 or SOA or SaaS, it is about building a bridge amongst all of these and articulating a new architecture – we call it EDGE – that can help businesses (both enterprise and “online”) plan a strategy for success over the next decade.

The output of SPARK will be presented the next day at MIX and later in a variety of other forms to other outlets.

BTW, speaking of cool - Microsoft is suddenly getting lots of press for our Web 2.0 efforts. More on this below:

eWeek

Microsoft Seeks to Bridge Web 2.0 and SOA

Repost: http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1918207,00.asp

eWeek Blogs, Darryl Taft

Microsoft Livens Up Itself (With Web 2.0)

February 6, 2006

http://blog.eweek.com/blogs/eweek/archive/2006/02/06/5600.aspx

Reposts

AppDev: http://appdev.ithub.com/blogs/appdev/archive/2006/02/06/5602.aspx

SYS-CON Media

Dion Hinchcliffe's SOA Blog: The Web 2.0 Mashup Ecosystem Ramps Up

By Dion Hinchcliffe

February 5, 2006

http://au.sys-con.com/read/179109.htm

VSLive!

2 Feb 2006 by Robert W. Anderson

http://et.cairene.net/2006/02/02/vslive-john-devadoss/

VS Live webcasts

2 Feb 2006 by Ram Gopinathan

http://rgopinathan.com/blog/archive/2006/02/02/357.aspx

So what do you think about Web 2.0?

A Workflow Manifesto

jevdemon — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:24:59 GMT

From an internal presentation that I will make available over the next week or so.

Thanks to Harry for inspiration and feedback!

Workflow is everywhere

Workflow doesn’t just live in the datacenter on integration servers.

Workflow is powerful

Workflows can do everything that code can do at a higher level of abstraction

Workflow is fluid

Workflows can be modified, interrogated or otherwise manipulated at design time or run time

Workflow is inclusive

Workflow works well with both humans and software

Workflow is transparent

Workflow is easier to visualize, understand and change than code

A Japanese version of the WS-BPEL spec

jevdemon — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:45:00 GMT

The BPEL Seminar, a volunteer group, is currently translating the WS-BPEL spec into Japanese.

In order to avoid duplication, all those interested in translating WS-BPEL into Japanese are asked to review the BPEL Seminar wiki at http://wiki.livedoor.jp/the_pandas_panda/d/Translation.