Books for/about - Service Oriented Architecture

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 : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Thomas Erl

ISBN: 0131428985
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Summary: Excellent book for undestanding SOA based Web services
This book is very compelling for anyone who want get introduced to the SOA strategies. I found it well structured, and extremely helpful in understanding the XML based standards related to SOA and its implementation approaches. The author did a very good job on XML Web Services scenarios but failed to demonstrate real code examples....that is my only biggest gripe. Otherwise it is a must-have book for anyone who involved with building an SOA solution. Interestingly, this book is much better than the author's previous blue book.

Summary: Valuable Resource
I was impressed with how much "inside information" this book reveals about how all of the xml and ws* technologies really work. It openly reveals problems and then provides strategies for dealing with these problems.

The web services platform has become so complex not just because of the multitude of specs but also because different software companies are building for or supporting different versions of these specs.

I found this book to be a very reliable resource and reference that helped me make sense of some of the discrepenceies out there and provided guidance as to how to make the most of what is available now when implementing web services and xml schemas to solve problems in the real world.

Summary: Best Book on SOA so far for Architects!
This is the best book on SOA compared to IBM's book Service Oriented Compass. And more over converage of SOA concepts are documentated excellently. Finally this is best book for thumbs-up!

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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 Amazon Price: $37.77 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: 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. Summary:

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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
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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.

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Business Process Management With a Business Rules Approach: Implementing the Service Oriented Architecture

Publisher: Business Knowledge Architects
Authors: Tom Debevoise

ISBN: 0976904802
List Price: $26.00
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Summary: The Road to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOx)
This tome is a must-read for any manager, CIO, CEO or executive who is facing the task of getting their house in order with respect to SOx. Tom's thorough exploration of Business Rules perfectly aligns itself to control documentation and assessment required for Sox compliance. Tom's case study approach makes understanding and integrating Business Process Management an easy task.

Summary: Outstanding piece of work!!!
I enjoyed this book. In Tom's view BPM should be a rapid, organic process in a company. While the language is simple, don't be fooled - the case study explores many complex issues. As well as business rules and BPM, the author ties business intelligence into the theme. There is no question that BPM, Business Rules and Business Intelligence are critical for every company's strategy. This book was pretty good at tying it all together. If you what to get the BPM religion, read Fengar and Smith.

Summary: Program Manager
Business Rules are just one area of advancement within trendy IT thinking today yet we need to know how they should work with BPM tools. This book tries to lay out a vision for two development methodologies. The business rules section is a bit sparse but there are plenty of good references on this subject. I particularly liked the chapter devoted to process convergence, which takes the BPM concepts and applies them to a data processing environment. Another strong point is that the book's case study provides many examples to reinforce points under discussion. The index is well organized. The illustrations that are sprinkled throughout the book also add humor and clarity.

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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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Web Services

Publisher: Springer
Authors: Gustavo Alonso Fabio Casati Harumi Kuno Vijay Machiraju

ISBN: 3540440089
List Price: $59.95
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Summary: Great Book on Distributed Systems
This book is a little more expensive than most of the flashy Web Services books these days but it is well worth the money. Set in small font and not wasting pages on chapters like "History of XML and SOAP" this book is dense in content on the architecture of distributed systems, including Web Services. We get to learn about the issues of distributed transactions and the differences between conversations, coordination and orchestration. The text is precise but nevertheless easy to follow. One of the best books I have seen on Web Services architecture.

You can find a sample chapter on the author's site:
http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/alonso/Web-book/Chapter-5.pdf

Summary: Comprehensive
If you want comprehensive high level overview of today's enterprise software landscape, this is a must-read.

One of the best books which answers the question , Why Web Services?? Unique perspective on middlewares in general.

Do not expect any code examples or details of any particular middleware.

Summary: Excellent book on web services
A very nice introductory book on Web services, much different from all the others on this topic.
Excellent overview of the problematics of service oriented architectures on the Web and of their relationships with their EAI counterparts (corba,rpc,..).

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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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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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