IBM unfolds service-oriented architecture offerings

IDG News Service - IBM today announced new software and services designed to help customers reuse parts of their IT systems and combine them in new ways in what the company is calling a service-oriented architecture.
In an SOA, software elements and business processes alike are broken down into standardized building blocks, allowing them to be recombined in new ways with a minimum of effort. "It's about treating business processes and the IT infrastructure you have to run them as standardized components that can be reused and combined for different processes," said Michael Kiess, a spokesman for IBM's software group in Europe.
It's not necessary to transform an entire IT infrastructure in one go: With IBM's new WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation software, customers can begin building applications within an SOA bit by bit, the company said.
"This product facilitates business flexibility by building modular architecture," Kiess said. "It's a framework that supports our vision of service-oriented architecture."
Business Integration Server Foundation can be used to turn existing Web services and packaged applications into reusable services, IBM said. The software includes native support for Business Process Execution Language, a formal way of describing how information moves through a business.
"This product is one of the first that can do this," Kiess said.
For customers unfamiliar with the SOA concept, IBM is also introducing a number of new services, he said.
The Assessments for Services Oriented Architectures service, offered by IBM's Global Services division, will help customers starting out on this path evaluate functional and technical aspects of their plans, IBM said. Global Services will assess whether the proposed design breaks up services in an appropriate way and whether the infrastructure can deliver the required quality of service.
Another Global Services offering, Strategy Planning for Service Oriented Architectures, takes client objectives and builds a map of business services to identify which ones can be incorporated into an SOA, IBM said. Customers end up with a reference model for how the services will work together and a plan for making the transition from their current architecture.
Data caught in legacy systems won't be ignored: With Application Renovation and Integration for Services Oriented Architectures, IBM Global Services will help customers assess the value of exposing legacy data to the SOA and linking it to other business processes. If this is deemed worthwhile, IBM will help customers restructure their legacy applications to do the job, the company said.
Another service, proposed jointly by IBM Research and IBM Business Consulting Services, will let customers measure the performance of differentareas of their businesses in order to direct their efforts most efficiently. Component Business Modeling uses the SOA model to break down the business into elements that can be changed and improved quickly, the company said.