SOA provides data integration, BPM for prisons

When visualizing success stories for service-oriented architecture (SOA), more efficient processing of new inmates arriving at county jails and state and federal prisons probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

However, SOA is at the heart of business operations for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which designs, builds and manages prisons and detention centers throughout the U.S., and runs the fifth largest correctional system in the country. John Pfeiffer, vice president and CIO of CCA, points out that in the first two months after implementation of an SOA system that handles data collection on arriving prisoners, errors were reduced by 95 percent and processing time was reduced by 25 percent.

In Your Face

There comes a time in every young person's life—soon after teething, usually—when she must make a momentous decision: MySpace or Facebook? One's preference is a matter of taste. MySpace, if you ask me, is a spam-infested state of nature. The average user page comes with a crapload of embedded music and video players, some seizure-inducing wallpaper, and a bunch of friend requests from "models" who want to "get to know you." (It also happens to be nearly three times the size of Facebook.) Facebook, on the other hand, is much less customizable but also a lot more reassuring. The interface is comfy, sturdy, and attractive without being showy—the kind of social network you'd bring home to Mom. Think of it as the Volvo of social networking.

But a few weeks ago, Facebook pulled a MySpace-like maneuver. The site tore down its walls and opened its pages to outside developers. A new tool kit called Facebook Platform allows any programmer—a bored student or a multimillion-dollar corporation—to peel back the site's breastplate, poke around, and rearrange the innards. None of the nearly 900 (and counting) programs released so far are particularly life-changing—among the most popular add-ons are a "Graffiti" program (downloaded by more than 3.3 million people as of this writing) that lets you doodle other people's profiles and an "Honesty Box" that lets your friends say, anonymously, what they really think of you. Collectively, though, these programs are hugely significant. If the site figures out a smart way to deploy these mini applications, it will be more than just a social network. Facebook will turn into a do-everything site with the potential to devour the whole Internet.

Gartner: SOA governance remains crucial

Paolo Malinverno, Research Vice President for Gartner, took time out at Gartner's Application Architecture, Development and Integration Summit 2007 in Nashville to discuss the fundamentals of SOA governance. He covers a broad range of application integration issues and considers governance to be the perpetual backbone of a successful SOA.

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid26_gci1261208,00.html?track=sy80

Chipper

IBM Rational, SOA development and all that Jazz

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is changing the way developers work and IBM Rational is responding with an attempt to bring the collaborative community approach of open source to the development of commercial tools through its Jazz project.

"Jazz is an open commercial community," said Dave Locke, director for IBM Rational worldwide marketing strategy, in an interview on the eve of the opening of this week's IBM Rational Software Development Conference in Orland, Fla. The expanding role of the Jazz community in the creation of tools for SOA development is being highlighted at the conference. Jazz is IBM Rational response to the way SOA, which is a collaborative approach itself, is changing the software world, according to Locke.

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid26_gci1260339,00.html?track=sy80

What does service-oriented architecture (SOA) mean to business people with little knowledge or interest in the technological side of Web services? Michael Liebow, who heads IBM’s Business Consulting Services for SOA, discusses the good, the bad and the hopeful.

IBM's Michael Liebow answers the following questions:
(1) What's happening in terms of the business side of enterprises adopting SOA?
(2) What's Missing?
(3) But some organizations are moving forward with incremental SOA?
(4) Has IBM worked up a unified SOA story for business people that makes sense to them?
(5) From the business perspective is it always mostly going to be about ROI, so you don't need to talk about the specific technology?
(6) Struggling how?
(7) Speaking over governance, what are you saying to people in terms of SOA governance?


http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid26_gci1259677,00.html

Case Study: Composite Applications at Safeco

Safeco is an Insurance company, headquartered in Seattle which provides auto, homeowners and small-business policies. In early 2006, Safeco initiated the development of a Service Oriented Architecture to support the business in two strategic areas: new product development and business process improvements. The development team at Safeco got together to write a case study about their experiences applying SOA and how they used enabling technologies SCA, BPEL, and composite application approaches to reuse legacy code, enable runtime modifiability thanks to decoupling, Java and .NET interoperability, and the ability to deliver a complex solution integrating over 5 systems in less than 8 weeks with a small team.

http://www.infoq.com/articles/soa-at-safeco