Thomas Erl

This excerpt describes fundamental terms and concepts associated with service-oriented computing, including those related to service-oriented architecture, service-orientation, and cloud computing. Service-Oriented Computing Service-oriented computing is an umbrella term that represents a new generation distributed computing platform. As such, it encompasses many things, including its own design paradigm and design principles, design pattern catalogs, pattern languages, a distinct architectural model, and related concepts, technologies, and frameworks. Service-orientation (explained shortly) emerged as a formal method in support of achieving the following goals and benefits associated with service-oriented computing: Increased Intrinsic Interoperability - Services within a given boundary are designed to be naturally compatible so that they can be effectively assemble... (more)

Web Service Contract Design & Versioning for SOA

It's always good to get an idea of the big picture before diving into the details of any technology-centric topic. For this reason, we'll take the time to briefly mention the overarching goals and benefits associated with service-oriented computing as they relate to Web Service contract design. Because these goals are strategic in nature, they are focused on long-term benefit - a consideration that ties into both the design and governance of services and their contracts. An understanding of these long-term benefits helps provide a strategic context for many of the suggested techni... (more)

Cloud Computing, SOA and Windows Azure - Part 4

For a complete list of the co-authors and contributors, see the end of the article. The following section demonstrates the creation of a simple "Hello World" service in a Windows Azure hosted application. Note: If you are carrying out the upcoming steps with Visual Studio 2008, you will need to be in an elevated mode (such as Administrator). A convenient way of determining whether the mode setting is correct is to press the F5 key in order to enter debug mode. If you receive an error stating "the development fabric must be run elevated," then you will need to restart Visual Studi... (more)

Paths to SOA

Many are comparing notes on two well-publicized paths to achieving SOA. The bottom-up approach is currently the most common variety, where Web services are created on an "as need" basis to fulfill mostly integration-related requirements. These services are typically application specific and simply re-create traditional integration channels over the open Web services communication framework. The top-down approach, on the other hand, is one of analysis, deep thought, and patience. Service-orientation is infused into the business process layer so that services can be modeled in ali... (more)

Cloud Computing, SOA and Windows Azure

For a complete list of the co-authors and contributors, see the end of the article. Microsoft's Software-plus-Services strategy represents a view of the world where the growing feature-set of devices and the increasing ubiquity of the Web are combined to deliver more compelling solutions. Software-plus-Services represents an evolutionary step that is based on existing best practices in IT and extends the application potential of core service-orientation design principles. Microsoft's efforts to embrace the Software-plus-Services vision are framed by three core goals: User expe... (more)