Chapter 1. SOA essentials

Ponce de León’s early quest to find the “Fountain of Youth” in Florida is one of the most frequently told stories of American folklore. Although he failed in his journey to find the “healing waters,” it turns out that he was in good company, for throughout history we can find tales of similar adventures that never materialized. The history of computing bears some resemblance. Every decade or so, a new “silver bullet” emerges that promises to heal the problems that have plagued software development in the past. Those problems include protracted development cycles; solutions that fail to achieve expectations; high maintenance costs; and, of course, the dreaded cost overruns.

1.1. Brief history of distributed computing

1.2. The promise of web services for delivering SOA

1.3. Understanding the core characteristics of SOA

1.4. Technologies of a SOA platform

1.5. Introducing a SOA maturity model

1.6. Summary