Books for/about - SOA

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Concepts, Technology, and Design

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Thomas Erl

ISBN: 0131858580
List Price: $44.99
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Summary: be cautious of some other reports on the book
I've had this book for several months now, and read various sections of it. Though not all. Kinda lengthy, you know. But you can use just the portions needed for your stuff. Erl's examples help give it flesh. I find the jargon is still sometimes too much. But he didn't make that up. Seems to be what we all're stuck with in SOA.

Be VERY cautious of some other recent reviews of the book. Two or three of them gave very negative reports. But mayhaps they didnt read very much of it? Hey check this out. Some of them only have done one review. Of this book. Bit suss, eh? Are those real reviews? Heck, are those real reviewers?

Summary: Excellent coverage of SOA...
It seems as if the "next big thing" in information technology and software development revolves around the theme of Service-Oriented Architecture, or SOA for short. If you've barely scratched the surface of the subject, it's tempting to think that SOA is just Web services. Even Notes/Domino 7 has hopped on that bandwagon with new design elements to support Web services. However, in reality, SOA is far, far more. If you want (or need) to understand the subject well, I'd recommend Service-Oriented Architecture - Concepts, Technology, and Design by Thomas Erl. The 792-page book may look intimidating, but don't let the size scare you off...

Erl's book is broken up into five parts that help you get your mind around what can be a large and complex subject. Part 1 concentrates on the higher-level fundamentals, such as what SOA is (and isn't), the history of SOA, and how we currently use SOA with the Web services framework. Then, Part 2 gets into the newer standards for Web services, commonly referred to as the WS-* extensions. These standards are still evolving and morphing, but you'll understand where the industry is headed. Parts 3 and 4 delve into the concept of services and describe how to design your system to best leverage that architecture. Without this knowledge, you might end up with various Web services that really don't constitute a true SOA system. In Part 5, you get into the actual XML file layouts of each SOA component, so that you can understand the internals and how all the components work together.

I most appreciated the book's focus on explaining things using case studies and analogies. The case studies run through the entire book, so you can see how a company might evolve their strategy over time. Especially helpful are the analogies ("In Plain English"), in that they point out how a service-oriented structure exists in many of the things we do in everyday life. We just don't think of them that way. You'll learn how the author's car washing enterprise parallels an SOA design, and this comparison does wonders for making it all come together.

One thing the book does not do is get into platform-specific implementation details. Towards the end of the book, there is coverage on .Net and J2EE implementations of SOA, but not at a level that would allow you to sit down and start coding. By staying away from the specifics, Erl is able to concentrate on the concepts that apply regardless of whether you're in the Windows or Java camp.

While it might be tempting to go grab a "Web Services for Dummies" book and start coding, you really do need to understand the background in order to build comprehensive solutions that add value to your organization. An investment in a book like this will put you on the track to being able to deliver those solutions.

And that's really our job -- delivering value...

Summary: One-stop book on SOA
I can truly say that Thomas Erl is probably one of very few that truly understands Web services and SOA. His books (both of them) are an architects companion when it comes to coming up with an enterprise-wide solution. Thomas depicts the pro's and con's of each approach and gives the reader an insight into what a Service-Oriented Architecture can bring to the picture.
"Of the many books that cover Web services and SOA, Service-Oriented-Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services will certainly go down in history as one of the best. It's the only book of its kind that covers the latest and the greatest Web services protocols."

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Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A Planning and Implementation Guide for Business and Technology

Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Eric A. Marks Michael Bell

ISBN: 0471768944
List Price: $59.95
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Summary: Excellent !!
In order to complete any jigsaw puzzle, you normally need to refer to the picture on the box.

This book provides the SOA picture with amazing common-sense clarity (thereby facilitating the puzzle).

I currently run Operational Risk and SOX Technology Development for a top-tier Investment Bank in New York - this book contains invaluable information, tips and techniques - I thoroughly recommend it.

Hearty Congratulations to the authors and Thank You for a very decent read!!

Summary: Excellent hands on service development model solutions for SOA!
Excellent hands on service development model solutions for SOA!

It looks like a lifetime experience of the authors that produced tangible deliverables in the SOA space.

If you are an architect, developer, or a manager, you should get this book and rely on it when you're doing your work.

I'd recommend the book to all business and development communities. A must have!

Summary: Explaining the Basic Concepts
A surprising amount of the spending for information technology in virtually all organizations is spent on supporting, updating, integrating, or otherwise maintaining legacy systems. SOA is an attempt to define a generalized group of services oriented 'objects' (for lack of a better term) that have a well defined interface and output that is oriented to provide a business orjective.

Most books on SOA (do a search at Amazon) tend to be oriented around the web and the transfer of information between computers using various web protocols, especially SOAP and RSS. In essence these are putting the details before the concepts.

This is a book on the concepts, it is what we are trying to do with SOA more than the details of how to do it. It is more concerned with good business practices rather the details of implementation. It is particularly good at refraining from recommending any particular vendor or technology.

A question you have to ask yourself is, 'Is now the time?' The authors say yes, that despite the history of attempts like CORBA, COM/DCOM, etc. there is now enough industry momentum behind current techniques that it is clearly time for you to get started. This is one of those places where it is easy to predict the future, it is harder to get it right.

Still, I think the broad concepts brought out here will last, even if the details of the implementation do not. And these concepts is what this book is about.

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	Enterprise SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices (The Coad Series) Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR Authors: Dirk Krafzig Karl Banke Dirk Slama
ISBN: 0131465759 List Price: $54.99 Amazon Price: $34.64 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Honest and insightfull This is a great introduction to SOA. The authors focus on the fundamentals of SOA, displaying both wisdom and honesty as they discuss the structure of an SOA, its essential and optional elements, strategies for SOA introduction (from technical and organizational points of view), SOA oriented project management techniques, success (and failure stories), etc. The book is refreshing in the way that it avoids the vendor induced hysteria associated with new technologies choosing instead to calmly and objectively discuss the fundamental forces driving SOA adoption: federation, heterogeneity, agility, reuse. Additionally, the authors display a healthy dose of independence as they discuss the merits and lack thereof of over-hyped technologies such as Enterprise Service Buses and BEPL systems. This is clearly a book written by people who have actually built SOAs, as opposed to sit on WS-* committees or implement SOA related junkware. Summary: Excellent overview This book was an excellent broad overview of the technology related items associated with an SOA adoption. It is a good read for an IT manager or architect that is more concerned with the bigger picture. This book, combined with a book that has more of a business oriented slant, such as Service Orient or Be Doomed or Service Blueprint make a great combination for enterprise architects interested in the potential of SOA. Summary: Good SOA book, lacks the Open Source approach. I mostly agree with all former posts. My contribution to the comments is that the book focuses only on proprietary platforms and grossly misses the point on how to use Open Source platforms as an alternative, thus doing the same stuff with a much smaller budget. Summary:

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Enterprise SOA: Designing IT for Business Innovation

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: Dan Woods Thomas Mattern

ISBN: 0596102380
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Summary: Very Helpful Book on SOA
This is a very helpful book on SOA because it provides the business case for SOA, an excellent technical overview, and real-life examples of how to use it.

While it is written from an SAP perspective, any IT group that is investigating SOA will find value in this book -- as it describes how SOA impacts different layers of the IT stack (from persistence to business objects, to process orchestration, and uesr interfaces). It also provides actual case studies.

Summary: SOA - reality today!
Being a student of business and information management, I had heard about SOA before, both from a technical perspective (XML, Web services) and from a business standpoint (shiny visions of flexible processes). This book is like the missing link between the two areas! It does not only tell you that SOA will change organizations but it also shows *how* exactly this is going to happen. The authors describe all relevenat aspects, starting from organizational change down to the SAP tools that can be used to model processes and to create your own service-oriented applications.
What surprised me most was that ESA - SAP's flavour of SOA - is business-ready today! This is illustrated with numerous real-world examples from a wide range of corporations. The case studies give a good idea of useful ESA applications and show how the transition to a service-oriented infrastructure could take place.
"Enterprise SOA" is suited for everybody interested in information management, even without any previous knowledge in the SOA field. After reading through the book, you'll finally know how SOA is changing the business environment and how SAP is bringing the concepts to life based on open standards. Although you won't know every technical detail, you'll have learned enough to plan your organization's future in a service-oriented world.

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Understanding Enterprise SOA

Publisher: Manning Publications
Authors: Eric Pulier Hugh Taylor Paul Gaffney

ISBN: 1932394591
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Summary: VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Are you having a problem making sense of the new emerging standards for virtually all of the major information technology decisions? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Eric Pulier and Hugh Taylor, have done an outstanding job of writing a book for business professionals that explains and clarifies the way web services work in a business setting.

Pulier and Taylor, begin by providing a broad overview of web services, how they work, and what they can do for your business. Then, they introduce the concept of the service-oriented architecture. The authors continue by exploring how the enterprise SOA changes the terrain of enterprise application integration, software development, business-to-business commerce, business process management, and real-time operations. Next, they introduce the extremely important discussions of security and management of enterprise SOA. Then, the authors look at SOA networks and utility computing, two deployment scenarios that are likely to be on your horizon if you are considering and SOA. The authors continue by looking at realizing Titan's wish list for its SOA and begin to sort out how to deal with the individual players involved in the process. Next, they continue with a description of how they achieved consensus among the players about how to pursue an effective SOA. Then, the authors introduce the "four P's" and their suggested four stage process for best practices in enterprise SOA. They also go into more depth on how the training and pilot planning process works. The authors continue by examining platform selection and establishment of project goals and measurements of success. Finally, they conclude the book with a look at how Titan Insurance has moved forward with its SOA plan.

This most excellent book is organized around two critical areas necessary in realizing an enterprise SOA: technology and people. The authors will show you how to think in a big way--moving confidently between technology- and business-level concerns.

Summary: I have read 4 books on this subject and this is by far the best
This is the first time I have created a review but I felt compelled to offset the 1 person out of 12 who gave this book a bad rating. I can't imagine a better more concise inrtroduction to this subject. I can't understand what would motivate somone to give this book a bad review. The title of the book is UNDERSTANDING Enterprise SOA not EXPERT'S guide to Enterprise SOA and it is so well written with such great diagrams that even a non-IT person could understand the material. The examples ARE real and in fact almost EXACTLY mirror the environment of my current company - in fact it will serve as a valuable road map going forward.

If you want to understand this stuff and not get lost in all the vendor self serving hype GET THIS BOOK PERIOD!

Summary: Good Overall View of What Can Be Done
This is an extremely well done book on explaining how to make different kinds of computer systems talk to one another. The title of the book uses the term SOA which stands for service-oriented-architecture. Other terms you might have heard for the same functionality include: SOAP (Simple object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), UDDI (Uniersal Discovery, Description, and Integration), XML (eXtensible Markup Language), RSS (Rich Site Summary), or Web Services. These terms are not exactly the same thing, but are terms used as part of the implementation of data transfer between systems of different types.

The internet is for the transfer of information from a computer to an individual who is going to read, look at, store or whatever the information that is coming in. XML, or SOAP, or SOA, or Web Services is the standard by which two computers can talk to each other.

Want to see a system actually working. Go to www.Books-On-Line.com. In the upper left hand corner of the home page is a place to enter the ISBN numnber of a book. When you click on 'Get Prices' the Books-on-Line web site goes to Amazon Web Services, using XML and sends back to you the various prices at which you can buy this book from Amazon. It doesn't matter what kind of system you are running, which browser, or what kind of system Books-On-Line is running, or what Amazon uses. That's the beauty of industry wide standards.

This book is set at a fairly high view, that of the person in charge of setting up a system. It doesn't have code examples, but once you understand what can be done, then you at least know what you want to implement.

Good Book.

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	Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass: Business Value, Planning, and Enterprise Roadmap (Developerworks) Publisher: IBM Press Authors: Norbert Bieberstein Sanjay Bose Marc Fiammante Keith Jones Rawn Shah
ISBN: 0131870025 List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $38.87 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: Eye-Opening Reading I enjoyed the book. It was well-written in clear language, presenting a concise set of principles for a successful SOA strategy. This book was an eye-opener for me. It presents SOA as something that you grow into. It described SOA in terms of the business benefits that it leads to, namely agility and flexibility. The authors filled the book with wise advice. It opened my eyes to the path that lay ahead of me. The authors suggest a close working relationship between business process owners and the technical staff. They claim this is a critical foundation for being able to create services which are indeed flexible and lead to business agility. The 2 case studies at the end of the book could have included more details. If you're looking ahead for your own SOA development efforts, definitely pick up this book as you plan projects, evaluate staffing needs, design your architecture, and consider software purchases. Summary: Core information for application architects... The whole subject of SOA, or Service Oriented Architecture, is getting to be ever-more mainstream in IT organizations. Being able to build systems using a web services architecture presents some very real advantages, but how do you know where to begin? From an architecture and structure viewpoint, this book does a pretty good job... Service-Oriented Architecture Compass: Business Value, Planning, and Enterprise Roadmap by Norbert Bieberstein, Sanjay Bose, Marc Fiammante, Keith Jones, and Rawn Shah. Contents: Introducing SOA; Explaining the Business Value of SOA; Architecture Elements; SOA Project Planning Aspects; Aspects of Analysis and Design; Enterprise Solution Assets; Determining Non-Functional Requirements; Securing the SOA Environment; Managing the SOA Environment; Case Studies in SOA Deployment; Navigating Forward; Glossary; Index Given the right audience, this has a lot of valuable information. If you're a developer looking for information on how to code a web service, then you'll likely be highly disappointed. This book is not a coding tutorial, nor does it profess to be. It really serves as a guide on how an SOA environment can be built and leveraged within an organization. I would see this as being a great book for an application architect trying to position an organization's overall application strategy. For a person like that, all the important concepts are to be found here. There's the "why"... why be concerned with SOA? There's the "who"... Who in your organization plays a part in designing and building these services to be used by the business? And of course, there's a lot of "what"... What are the parts that make up an SOA implementation, and what does an organization have to take into account to make it all work together? It's easy enough to build a web service to look up a name or something, and to think you're now leveraging SOA. The reality is much deeper and more fundamental than just rolling out a web service here and there... An additional feature of the book that makes it unique is that it references online developerWorks articles on the IBM web site in order to add more information to the mix. Oh, and I probably should mention that since it's an IBM Press book, there's a heavy slant towards IBM examples and software. But overall, the core information is vendor-neutral, and it's material you'll need to understand in order to make an SOA implementation a success. Don't think you'll sit down, read the book in a couple of hours, and then be all-knowing when it comes to SOA. The material takes time to read and understand. But once you make it all the way through, you should be well-grounded in the fundamentals behind it all. Summary: A comprehensive guide to planning, using and managing Service-Oriented Architecture The IBM Enterprise Integration Team experts provide a comprehensive guide to planning, using and managing Service-Oriented Architecture, helping business readers migrate to SOA by sharing best practices and lessons gained from projects and development efforts. From considering SOA's impact and importance in the business environment to SOA design, analysis, security and integration into other systems, chapters provide technical and detailed software engineering information based on models, services and activities in real world situations. Summary:

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Understanding SOA with Web Services (Independent Technology Guides)

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Eric Newcomer Greg Lomow

ISBN: 0321180860
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Summary: Practical SOA Book
This is one of the main books I recommend to clients on SOA and Web Services. Several parts of the book that stand out from what I have seen in the rest of the field including the section on Advanced Messaging and Transactions. The work is particularly strong in the "why are we here and how did we get here" with regard to web service evolving from various technologies like MQ, Tx systems, and mainframes, and describes where Web services has advantages and disadvantages over those technologies in a non-religious format. In Chapter 3, for example, MQ, CORBA, and XML web Services are compared across a set of criteria including: service contracts, data management, registration and discovery, security, interaction patterns, communication, and QoS. These objective analyses are some of the most valuable resources in the book, because when looking at Web Services' integration it helps the architect see where the strengthes and weaknesses lie.

The only nit is section on security is good by normal programming books standards, but more emphasis on the gaps in the standards would be useful, for example input validation, and security exceptions which are a fact of life in distributed security, but are not dealt with by standards are not covered.

This book describes what gaps SOA/Web Services address and why, where the technology is going, and what you can do about it today. Very valuable.

Summary: A word of reason in the super-hyped world of SOA
Every so often a known concept is re-invented and served with a new garnish on a new plate. The environment of sudden public attention fertilized with ignorance breeds enormous hype, which in turn makes air so thick that you hardly can hear the voice of reason. This environment morphs the concept into something so vague and different from the original that only sales people feel comfortable talking about it. I believe this has happened to the SOA concept.

In this world of insanity, it is paramount to find islands of logic and reason that can teach and validate a hype-free understanding of the issues. Sources like ZapThink and Gartner have been very helpful, but "Understanding SOA with Web Services" is truly indispensable in putting everything in the right perspective. I bought the book primarily because one of the authors, Greg Lomow, wrote of one of my favorite books, "C++ FAQs", which I also strongly recommend to anyone who enjoys learning about new ideas and observations.

The book draws a conceptual and architectural views of SOA and its implementation using WebServices standards' stack. It covers not just history and latest developments on the subject, but also hints on the future directions. Just like "C++ FAQs", this book focuses on the core understanding of the issues, and on pros and cons of technologies and standards. But most important and enjoyable to me is its language of reason. Reading it simply makes me feel good!

Summary: Will save you a lot of time
This book is really good at distilling the web services standards down to the core essentials - what are the most important things to know and more importantly, where the specifications still have room for improvement. So if you would prefer to save yourself a lot of time wading through specs in order to be able to hold your own in front of the whiteboard (or keyboard) there is no better book than this. What I like most about Eric's books is they are always written in a very honest and straightforward manner and they are obviously informed by years of real world experience - in other words basically the opposite of a David Linthicum book.

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Executive's Guide to Web Services (SOA, Service-Oriented Architecture)

Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Eric A. Marks Mark J. Werrell

ISBN: 0471266523
List Price: $39.95
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: Good, clear read
A good primer, clearly defined concepts and a writing style that cuts thru the jargon right to the point. Others have expounded the overall virtues of the book, I'll only echo the earlier review praising Chapter 2's definitions.

If you are an executive, senior manager, or just an IT professional looking for the "no BS" answer, and need a clear, concise overview of this sometimes complicated subject so you can make informed decisions on utilizing (or recommending) web services in your business, this book is for you.

Summary: Executive guide is right.
There is not enough detail here to make this book worth the money. Don't waist your time, there are many other books here that will fill in the details, this is not one of them.

Summary: Make Business Sense of Your Web Initiatives
Web-based initiatives can be as simple or complex as looking at the night sky. The technology choices from programming languages to servers to networks to security can be overwhelming. Add to the mix the types of Internet-based business systems desired and demanded by customers along with the ability to implement them and you can find a state of confusion and uncertainty.

Eric and Mark do a superb job of helping executives understand how to take realistic steps to solve the technology conundrum and how best to approach Web-based initiatives that will bring the greatest value to achieving business goals. Without such a book, this journey can be daunting.

The thought leadership presented in the book takes the reader from the application of innovative uses of current technologies to the leading edge of future applications and architectures; all compartmentalized into four phases of adoption.

A great dissertation that is ahead of the pack in toning down the hype of Web Services while presenting a realistic view of the tremendous value that can be achieved.

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