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Web as the Platform, Webware as the OS: A Primer for SOA October 23, 2007

Posted by mukundmohan in EDI, Technology.
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Dan Farber called it the summer of Facebook. The social network went from relative obscurity outside of college campuses to the next big thing with a multi-billion dollar valuation and more than double the number of users.

Well, fall is here and the evolution of social networking platforms continues with Facebook as the harbinger of the web as a platform.

MySpace is opening its platform with a set of APIs (application program interface) and markup language for developing applications to run in the MySpace environment. LinkIn and Google Orkut have announced similar initiatives. Even Apple said it intends to open its iPhone to outside developers.

So what is this all about?

Simple: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Service Oriented Architecture is an on demand system for linking resources. Resources in an SOA are made available on the network (like the web) as independent services that are accessed in a standardized way. SOA promotes loose coupling between software components so they can be reused in different applications or business processes.

A key component of SOA is that it allows for the reuse of existing assets to create new services. It would be impractical for a business to discard enormous amounts of data stored in legacy IT systems. Service Oriented Architecture provides a cost-effective reuse of existing assets where new services can be created from an existing IT infrastructure. This allows businesses to leverage existing technology investments with different applications now able to work together.

The Bottom Line: Whether for automating business-to-business relationships, or creating engaging social networks, Web and Webware services are evolving the promise of the Internet to meet the needs of growing businesses and communities.

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