Larry Ellison on Cloud Computing
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmXJSeMaoTY
Interesting video of Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison explaining that "Cloud Computing" is just another meaningless term that does nothing to advance the discussion of networked services. Does anybody else tend to agree with him?
Intro to REST Video
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCcAE2SCQ6k
Very nice overview of REST (Representational State Transfer) from Google.
High Level Overview of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Service Oriented Architecture or SOA is a systems integration architecture for the development of loosely coupled and distributed applications in an enterprise. SOA encompasses many services found on the network. These services communicate with each other and the communications involves data exchange and even service coordination. Generally SOA can be classified into two terms Services and Connections.
Services:
A service is a function or some processing logic or business processing that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services. An example of a service is Loan Processing or online booking of a flight. Another example may be a Weather Service, which can be used to get weather information. Any application (Service Consumer) on the network can use the Weather Service (Service Provider) to get weather information it needs.
Connections:
Connections are the link of connecting self-contained distributed services with each other, it enables the Service Consumer and Service Provider to communicate with each other. For Web services, SOAP over HTTP is typically used to communicate between services.
The following figure is a simple example of the service-oriented architecture. It shows how a service consumer sends a service request to a service provider. After accepting the request, the service provider sends a message back to the service consumer providing it with the information it needs.
SOA is different from other integration architectures, because it consists mostly of loosely coupled, highly interoperable application services. Services can be developed in different development languages (such as Java, .NET, C++, PERL, PHP) and the software components become reusable. For example the same C# service may be used by a Java application. A WSDL defines a standard, which allows different SOA components/technologies to talk to each other.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
http://www.roseindia.net/webservices/
Services:
A service is a function or some processing logic or business processing that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services. An example of a service is Loan Processing or online booking of a flight. Another example may be a Weather Service, which can be used to get weather information. Any application (Service Consumer) on the network can use the Weather Service (Service Provider) to get weather information it needs.
Connections:
Connections are the link of connecting self-contained distributed services with each other, it enables the Service Consumer and Service Provider to communicate with each other. For Web services, SOAP over HTTP is typically used to communicate between services.
The following figure is a simple example of the service-oriented architecture. It shows how a service consumer sends a service request to a service provider. After accepting the request, the service provider sends a message back to the service consumer providing it with the information it needs.
SOA is different from other integration architectures, because it consists mostly of loosely coupled, highly interoperable application services. Services can be developed in different development languages (such as Java, .NET, C++, PERL, PHP) and the software components become reusable. For example the same C# service may be used by a Java application. A WSDL defines a standard, which allows different SOA components/technologies to talk to each other.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
http://www.roseindia.net/webservices/
Integration of a another kind.....Lifecasting.....
Nokia, Facebook Link GPS, Social Networking
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/europeinsight/archives/2009/09/nokia_facebook.html
Posted by: Jack Ewing on September 02
For more than a year Nokia execs have been forecasting that the GPS capability of high-end mobile phones would mesh with social networks. Now the Finnish handset maker is trying to get out in front of the trend, announcing an agreement with Facebook that will let users broadcast their locations to friends. The new service, which Nokia is calling lifecasting, means you can let your Facebook friends know when you’re in the neighborhood. Instead of just connecting online, you could actually meet in the flesh.Lifecasting will come with the N97 mini when the $630 device begins shipping in October. It will also be available as a free download for owners of the N97, Nokia’s current top-of-the-line smartphone. The announcement, made Sept. 2 at the Nokia World event in Stuttgart, is part of a broader product and software offensive designed to reassert the company’s dominance in high-end devices.
Lifecasting could help push online interaction back into the physical world—a potentially powerful development, especially if the service resonates with customers and application developers, and they find creative ways to use it.
But history has also shown that such new developments often take years to catch on because they require a big change in user behavior. Nokia, which beat Apple to the market by years with devices that could surf the Internet, was not as successful as its rival in getting customers to actually use the capability. And the company is weak in the U.S. where Internet-based services often catch on first.
Lifecasting is a great idea, but Nokia will have to show it has learned how to make such inventions not only possible but appealing and usable.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/europeinsight/archives/2009/09/nokia_facebook.html
Posted by: Jack Ewing on September 02
For more than a year Nokia execs have been forecasting that the GPS capability of high-end mobile phones would mesh with social networks. Now the Finnish handset maker is trying to get out in front of the trend, announcing an agreement with Facebook that will let users broadcast their locations to friends. The new service, which Nokia is calling lifecasting, means you can let your Facebook friends know when you’re in the neighborhood. Instead of just connecting online, you could actually meet in the flesh.Lifecasting will come with the N97 mini when the $630 device begins shipping in October. It will also be available as a free download for owners of the N97, Nokia’s current top-of-the-line smartphone. The announcement, made Sept. 2 at the Nokia World event in Stuttgart, is part of a broader product and software offensive designed to reassert the company’s dominance in high-end devices.
Lifecasting could help push online interaction back into the physical world—a potentially powerful development, especially if the service resonates with customers and application developers, and they find creative ways to use it.
But history has also shown that such new developments often take years to catch on because they require a big change in user behavior. Nokia, which beat Apple to the market by years with devices that could surf the Internet, was not as successful as its rival in getting customers to actually use the capability. And the company is weak in the U.S. where Internet-based services often catch on first.
Lifecasting is a great idea, but Nokia will have to show it has learned how to make such inventions not only possible but appealing and usable.
What is the hype on SOA ?
As corporations go global and fast forward acquisitions the IT team starts facing more and more challenges in integrating various bespoke and acquired applications. It has been a nightmare for the IT team when there is a deadline given by business to integrate applications which have never been designed with open interfaces.
Hence, to reduce the painstaking effort of re-inventing the wheel everytime, software programmers started thinking, exploring and delivered smarter programs - in a way that pieces of their code could be used "off the shelf" which can be reused and better maintained and supported in the future.
"SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a new approach to building IT systems that allow businesses to leverage existing assets and easily enable the inevitable changes required to support the business"(Ref 1)
The basic building blocks of SOA architecture is to build applications around reusable components and define guiding principles of reusing them.
The challenges of integration that an IT team face has been in existence from times immemorial. In the good old days, the only way of integrating 2 different systems was to use a API (Application Programming Interface) call from one application to the other to fetch data which was embedded in the application. The coding was pretty tiring and cumbersome and had to be modified for each and every program requesting for a subset of the same data. With the new SOA way of systems development, things became much easier - instead of programs embedding calls to each other in their source code the new way of development use "defined protocols" ( will be explained later) that describe how programs pass and parse data.
Some feel that SOA is just a revival of modular programming (1970s), event-oriented design (1980s) or interface/component-based design (1990s) . In some respects, one can regard SOA as an architectural evolution rather than as a revolution. (Ref 2) . It's a ongoing advancement of taking the best from the past and overcoming the drawbacks that classical programming had.
So, what are the benefits that SOA bring. According to a published article in ComputerWorld ( Ref 3), here are a few of them :
Ref 1 : Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies, 2007, ISBN - 13: 978-0-470-05435-2
Ref 2 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
Ref 3 : http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9001155/Is_There_Real_Business_Value_Behind_the_Hype_of_SOA_?taxonomyId=74&pageNumber=1
Hence, to reduce the painstaking effort of re-inventing the wheel everytime, software programmers started thinking, exploring and delivered smarter programs - in a way that pieces of their code could be used "off the shelf" which can be reused and better maintained and supported in the future.
"SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a new approach to building IT systems that allow businesses to leverage existing assets and easily enable the inevitable changes required to support the business"(Ref 1)
The basic building blocks of SOA architecture is to build applications around reusable components and define guiding principles of reusing them.
The challenges of integration that an IT team face has been in existence from times immemorial. In the good old days, the only way of integrating 2 different systems was to use a API (Application Programming Interface) call from one application to the other to fetch data which was embedded in the application. The coding was pretty tiring and cumbersome and had to be modified for each and every program requesting for a subset of the same data. With the new SOA way of systems development, things became much easier - instead of programs embedding calls to each other in their source code the new way of development use "defined protocols" ( will be explained later) that describe how programs pass and parse data.
Some feel that SOA is just a revival of modular programming (1970s), event-oriented design (1980s) or interface/component-based design (1990s) . In some respects, one can regard SOA as an architectural evolution rather than as a revolution. (Ref 2) . It's a ongoing advancement of taking the best from the past and overcoming the drawbacks that classical programming had.
So, what are the benefits that SOA bring. According to a published article in ComputerWorld ( Ref 3), here are a few of them :
- Application integration savings: Having a service-oriented interface to each application can save 30% to 40% on each integration point. Rather than point-to-point integration, SOA has a hub-and-spoke configuration, reducing integration points substantially.
- Reuse of applications: An application to retrieve and report on employee data from a human resources database can be used as a service by identity management systems, employee portals and other applications, rather than redeveloping the code or embedding it in each of these applications. The direct benefits are immediate avoidance of development-and-test labor costs. And as an organization moves more applications to SOA, reuse benefits grow. Short-term savings are typically 5% to 10%, growing to 40% or more for an enterprise wide deployment.
- Reduced project risks: Since the "reusable components" have been already tested and deployed it reduces the risks of deployment of the same code in future projects.
- Improved application quality: Reducing application integration complexity and allowing reuse also improves application quality.
Ref 1 : Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies, 2007, ISBN - 13: 978-0-470-05435-2
Ref 2 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
Ref 3 : http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9001155/Is_There_Real_Business_Value_Behind_the_Hype_of_SOA_?taxonomyId=74&pageNumber=1
