Enterprise SOA on SDN and BPX – The Good Stuff Just Got Better

[Former Member]

New, Improved, Expanded... Your Guide to the "Good Stuff" on Enterprise SOA

Over the past several weeks, we completely restructured the Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (enterprise SOA) pages, information, and tools in the Enterprise SOA section.  The Enterprise Services Community (ESC) area has grown and expanded with new members, groups, and successes.  There’s a lot of new content on ESOA.  You’ll enjoy a new task-oriented navigation and guidance system to help you quickly find what you need.    You’ll find more information and easier access to the SAP Discovery System for enterprise SOA.  There’s more current information from SAP regarding Technology and Business Standards related to ESOA.  More on Web Services.  You can download the just-released trial version of the SAP Composition Environment.  And, of course, you’ll gain easy access to ESOA blogs and an extensive wiki – including dozens of Enterprise Services (ES) Packages – all intended to help you and your organization take full advantage of the innovative Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture.  

What is Enterprise SOA? … and its Business Value?

  The first question we (and many of you) hear is usually about SOA – looking for a definition or an explanation.  Next, most people ask what makes SAP’s SOA – ”enterprise SOA” special or unique.  And, of course, the “value” question: How does it benefit me in my work, or provide my department or my company real business value?  And finally: Is it just hype and promises of some future nirvana, or is it real and tangible, today?    Please allow me an opportunity to add my voice to the choir by sharing a brief recap on enterprise SOA, and then to highlight what the new and improved ESOA content, tools, and community collaboration can do for you. 

All About (Enterprise) Service Oriented Architecture

  We know that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is about breaking monolithic systems into components to access valuable business logic as standards-based services. Services can be combined into new services that support enterprise-wide business processes and can be reused to maximize efficiency and reduce total cost of ownership.  However, effectively managing your IT with SOA principles means your SOA blueprint needs to reflect business semantics. To achieve this, you need a comprehensive governance process and design methodology that safeguards service quality, stability, and standards compliance.  You can define and produce all of those things yourself, provided you have the luxury of unlimited time and resources with expertise in these broad and deep topic, or …   Better yet: We recommend that you use those business semantics and business rules from SAP to transform “plain SOA” into “Enterprise SOA."  By providing business context to an IT architectural blueprint, they add tremendous value.  

Thousands of Enterprise Services Are Available to You, Right Now

SAP has developed more than 1000 enterprise services according to these principles, and SAP bundles these services to provide customers quick wins that utilize the business benefits of enterprise SOA.   Browse the Enterprise Services (ES) Workplace for detailed documentation about each enterprise service productized by SAP, test-drive them in a hosted environment or with the SAP Discovery System - SAP’s turnkey solution for risk-free first steps with enterprise SOA - and learn from the Enterprise Services (ES) Wiki about the benefits enterprise services provide for innovative business solutions.

But What If – Among those 1000+ Services – I Don’t Find The One I Want?

   So if the typical enterprise SOA lifecycle starts off with a search for the right service and then subsequently employs it in an application, composite application, or business process, what happens if the Enterprise Architect or Business Process Expert doesn’t find the right service? In this case they need someone to develop it. In traditional approaches to SOA this means custom development with the inherent additional risks and costs. This is where the Enterprise Services Community (ESC) comes to the rescue, introducing a revolutionary, community-based lifecycle approach.  Instead of digging into the low-level code and developing a new service, Enterprise Architects and Business Process Experts who are members of the ES Community can define and request services from the ES Community. If this is a common request and fits within SAP’s portfolio strategy and development schedule, then the service will be designed, implemented, and published in the SAP Enterprise Service Repository.   The SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment helps customize and consume enterprise services, so flexible and innovative composite applications that bring your IT people and organizations closer to your business people and their organizational goals can be designed and deployed more easily.   Enterprise SOA takes the concept of reusability to the next level; reuse is no longer limited to your corner of the enterprise but is available throughout the whole community of Enterprise Services users. And with the ES Packages on our wiki, you can share your knowledge about designing innovative business processes that leverage enterprise services. If your requirements are so specific that your services are relevant only to your business, enterprise SOA does not limit you; you can still develop any new service required.   This is why Enterprise SOA is your first choice for an adaptable, flexible, and open IT architecture when developing services-based, enterprise-scale business solutions.  

We Hope You Find Value – And Innovative Solutions – In the New Enterprise SOA Sections

  Please explore and take advantage of the many benefits of this new area on SDN and BPX.  Be sure to roam through the following rich ESOA resources:   •     Enterprise SOA section on SDN and BPX– your gateway to everything ESOA  •     Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and SAP•     ESOA blogs•     ESOA in the wiki -- look for the section on “Enterprise Services” for ES Packages and more  •     Discovery System•     Composition Environment section  •     Composition Environment download (trial version)  •     ES Workplace•     ES Community•     Standards – both technology and business topics  •     Web Services-Based Connectivity If there’s something missing, please let us know in a comment to this blog, or in a forum, since we watch those carefully for trends and requests.  If you have SOA projects underway or early successes to report, we’d enjoy hearing about them.  And a sneak preview for those readers who made it this far … you’ll get as much Enterprise SOA as you can handle, including hands-on sessions, presentations, demos, and much else at TechEd’07 so make plans now to join us later this year in Las Vegas, Munich, or Bangalore.