Service-Oriented Architecture
December 11, 2006 by WDW
I posted last Friday about the Wisconsin Digital Government Summit. Here is another lesson from the conference: build business IT systems using “service-oriented architecture.” Perhaps a more familiar way of describing it would be “modular.” The service refers to business services, like looking up an address, drawing a map, or accepting a submitted form.
The core idea, which is not new, is that computer systems should work like Lego blocks. If we build a website to help citizens find our offices, we might want to let them create a map as well as see the address. We can either build a mapping program ourselves, or stick on an existing mapping program like a sticking on a new Lego brick. We’ve all seen this example work well on websites that link to Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps. Use of these third-party mapping services is so simple and straightforward, most of us don’t notice it at all. But that simplicity is all due to the fact that the mapping services make their software modular, not to mention free. (Here is the page where you can get an API key to incorporate Google Maps in your own site.)
Implementing SOA is much more complex, of course. Some of the details are addressed at Wikipedia’s entry: Service-oriented architecture. Here is a midlevel discussion of the concept by John Reynolds: The SOA Elevator Speech.
And of course, LEGO.com The Official Web Site of LEGO ® products!
