It is quite difficult to think in terms of services.Though services are implemented with the help of Object oriented languages We should always remember some basic points while designing the services.

Object Orientation:

• Assume homogeneous platform and execution environment
• Share classes, not schemas
• Assume cheap, transparent communication
• Are linked: Object identity and lifetime maintained by infrastructure
• Typically require deployment of both client and server in sync
• Are easy to talk about and become a natural path for customers to follow
• Customers have 20+ years of experience and great intuition about what “object oriented is”
  

Service Orientation:

• Assume heterogeneous platform and execution environment
• Share schemas, not classes
• Assume variable cost, explicit communication
• Are autonomous:  Security and failure isolation are a must
• Ease “continuous deployment” of client and server separately
• Builds on ideas from component software, distributed objects, and MOM
• Dominant theme is to manage/reduce sharing between services

I hope my services saga continues with this post

Beyond the hype and buzz created by SOA, here are my few thoughts about SOA.

 1. SOA is business strategy:

 SOA is often looked as the yet another project taken by IT dept or always treated as IT thing. Off course, its implementation is very much IT thing but it should be looked more as a strategy for synchronization and alignment of all business processes of an organization.

2. SOA is not rewriting your ALL applications:

SOA implementations in proper manner always support organization's legacy systems, on which the organization is relying on from past several years. As for implementation of legacy application organization has put many $$ and your team members had put Hercules efforts for maintenance, it has worth continuing what you are using.

3. SOA gains multifold value when it’s implemented as Enterprise architecture:

SOA should not be looked in "isolated application islands" for any organization. When application island happens in organization the worth of every application decreases as the synchronization becomes problem with various systems.In this scenario SOA should be looked as a vehicle and opportunity to waive a "common Enterprise fabric" to get your business processes [and their systems] aligned or realigned.

4. Web services are tip of SOA iceberg:Yes, Web services are essential component for implementing SOA but while building these web services, SOA derives more value from service reuse and scalability. We should look beyond the web services to get the view of SOA horizon.

Hope, this post will carry out more brainstorming sessions...

Today it'€™s my first post on e-Zest corporate blog and I am very much excited to see lot of interest from readers and within e-Zest in very short span of time. Right now IT world is talking about state of US economy and its impact on outsourcing and specifically offshore outsourcing of IT and ITES services. In the flat world business dynamics are changing fast and I believe innovation in business processes, product and services,business models and service delivery approaches will be key factors in competitive success of organizations worldwide.

I see three key technology drivers having major impact in 2008 for consumer products or services accessed using browsers and business applications used by enterprises for managing business processes. Maturity of social media applications and Web 2.0 technologies, Industry wide acceptance of Software as a Service(SaaS) delivery based business applications and few success stories of successful implementation of service oriented architecture(SOA) based enterprise business platforms.

We should not see each of these technologies as silos growing independent of each other, rather convergence of Web2.0 technologies, SaaS delivery and SOA will drive major business innovations in next few years. We should also understand that recession in USA will drive faster adaption of this technology convergence than adversely affecting this, as pressing bottom-lines, cost cutting, personal pressure driving need for social space and need for integration of existing platforms and services for integrated solutions offerings will drive key business innovations. 

Have you thought of this in your business plan for year 2008?