Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
IBM Targets Problematic SOAs
10/30/2007
Some organizations may not be happy with their service oriented architectures (SOAs). They may have "unhealthy" SOAs as a consequence of partnering with inexperienced system integrators. They may have proprietary SOA technology in the mix, and it may be difficult to scale operations.
IBM is proposing to address this bleak scenario with a new campaign. The company is offering services, consulting sessions and tools--collectively referred to as the "IBM SOA Healthcheck"--to help pump life into flagging SOAs.
The promise of SOA is that data and applications can be exposed as services, which then can be reused across the organization. SOA helps create a more agile IT to meet business objectives. However, implementing and maintaining an SOA requires expertise that IT departments may lack.
And businesses apparently do need help with SOAs.
IBM surveyed its own clients, finding that more than half have "25 percent or less of the skills needed to use SOA to meet long-term business goals," according to an announcement issued by the company.
Organizations can get help from IBM through its SOA health checks. The health checks examine SOAs in terms of application reuse, governance, security, middleware, workload and service management.
The company is also offering two different SOA workshops to organizations:
- The SOA Applications and Services Healthcheck Workshop; and
- The Infrastructure Healthcheck Workshop for SOA.
The first workshop provides assurance and SOA expansion advice over a two- to three-day period. The second workshop involves a high-level assessment of servers, storage, middleware solutions and systems management capabilities over a one- to three-day period.
For those just starting out with SOA, IBM offers packaged solutions. One that the company is promoting is called the Identity Aware Enterprise Service Bus. The package combines WebSphere ESB solutions with Tivoli security and identity management solutions. Security for the system is offered through IBM SOA Professional Services.More details on IBM's SOA resources can be accessed here.
Kurt Mackie is Web editor of RCPmag.com and ADTmag.com. He can be reached at kmackie@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- U Wyoming Students Vote To Implement Sonic Foundry's Mediasite for Lecture Capture
An overwhelming student vote for Mediasite will put the Webcasting platform from Sonic Foundry into University of Wyoming lecture halls this fall. Mediasite is a presentation capture tool that records and synchronizes audio, video, and slides and then allows the presenter to provide it online for on-demand viewing or in podcast form. The tool also enables the presenter to make the presentation available online as it happens.
- DNS Flaw Unfixed as Experts Argue Protocol
Speculation continues as to what the ultimate systemic Domain Name System (DNS) flaw could be. This flaw apparently allows Web surfers to be spoofed, directing them to fake Web sites to gain passwords and load malware on their computers.
- IT Cost Cuts in 2008 May Be a Trend, Study Says
A first-quarter 2008 survey conducted by Computer Economics suggests a possible slowdown in IT spending and staffing lies ahead.
- Microsoft Revamps Its Platforms Division, Loses Kevin Johnson
Microsoft announced late Wednesday a reorganization of its Platforms & Services Division (PSD), as well as the departure of Kevin Johnson, a 16-year Microsoft veteran and president of the PSD.
- Microsoft's DNS Fix Leads to More Problems
The blogosphere is awash with talk about the possible overall weakness of the Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. For its part, Microsoft's released a DNS fix in its patch slate for July, but Redmond seems to have problems just getting it to end users. Moreover, some users of the DNS fix have experienced additional difficulties.
- D2L Launches Mobile Learning Environment
Desire2Learn this week announced a new mobile application of its Desire2Learn Learning Environment. Called Desire2Learn 2GO, the application ties in with Learning Environment 8.3 to provide access via Blackberry. The company also announced that it's streamlining integration Respondus 3.5, a quiz- and test-building application.
