Learning SOA
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There's been a lot of hype about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) over the last year or so as the "new thing" in corporate development. Whether it will really redefine the way we build applications like the web or will it be in use as a pocket architecture, like CORBA, that get used heavily in places, but don't really get extremely widely used.
I'm simplifying slightly, but the web truly changed corporate development. Lots of client server development changed into 2- and 3-tier web architectures almost over night. I'm still amazed in looking at how quickly, within a few years, most developers began to learn about web applications and a great many companies had at least one web-based application, at least internally.
SOA architecture represents a fundamental change in the way you build an application. It's like moving from procedural logic to OOP, a change of paradigms. And IBM is looking to help make it easier with game technology. This is actually kind of interesting: a game that is designed to help you with Business Process Management and re-engineering processes.
This version is more for managers and business school students, but I can see this expanding, maybe collaboratively to let developers and businespeople work together and build systems. Maybe it will evolve into something that can even be used to help prototpe new systems.
I think that game technology can help us in business. Just like IBM has been using Second Life technology to enhance business, I think other game-like innovations could make their way into business.
I'm still convinced that a Doom-like first person viewpoint technology could make it easier to browse databases at some point in the future.
Editor's Note: Steve is on vacation this week, so he will respond to this when he returns
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"I'm still convinced that a Doom-like first person viewpoint technology could make it easier to browse databases at some point in the future."
Personally I can't wait until an online store offers this sort of first-person browsing experience. Amazon's interface had barely changed in 12 years. Pages set out using tables? Yawn!!!!!
Imagine browsing through a virtual bookstore. Moving through shelves and shelves of books. "Walking" down corridors, walking over to the checkout and being greeted by a virtual shop assistant that speaks to you rather than prompts you with text. And you can speak back to him/her. Perhaps even bumping other bookstore shoppers on the way and peering over their shoulder to see what they are reading.
I've no doubt that sort of rich user experience will happen one day. Perhaps not quite as I've described but hopefully it will be drastically different from the moribund online shopping experience that we have today.
-Jamie
Jamie Thomson
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson -
I'm quite happy with Amazon's page layout. It's far easier and quicker to read a table layout than "Walking down corridors, walking over to the checkout and being greeted by a virtual shop assistant that speaks to you rather than prompts you with text."
"Perhaps even bumping other bookstore shoppers on the way and peering over their shoulder to see what they are reading." Sorry, I don't want other Amazon shoppers looking in by basket!
There is no problem so great that it can not be solved by caffeine and chocolate. -
I was quite caught up in SOA for a while until I penetrated the hype and I realised it was just three tier architecture in a dress.
I mean, it is just a means of segmenting your business objects and giving them an interface right?
So I wrote a few stored procedures to objectify my business information and now I have an SOA based reporting system - if I wanted I could use my reporting objects on a web application (for instance sharing production information with customers). Microsoft are making leaps and bounds in advertising a data source to a multitude of interfaces (XML etc), so the delivery/ interface mechanism is kind of irrelevant, you just need to organise your data right.
Big Deal.
I went to an interview the other day with some half baked "IT Manager". We're going SOA, says he. Really, say I, what business benefits do you expect to get from it? Urmm... We're buying SAP, was his reply. This guy in charge of IT for a £400million company.....? He had pointy hair.
But I agree with Ian - if I wanted to buy a Stone Roses album I just want to type in "Stone Roses" in a search box, fully rendered 3D worlds I can live without - if I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of real shopping a)I'd be mad and b) I'd go shopping.
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What is it with you Richard, that you would rather go into a real bookstore instead of sitting in front of your computer!!! Get a life man, there is nothing more rich and rewarding than spending more time in my cubicle or home office... 🙂
All that said, my computer experience is rich enough, and if SOA is really great, it will catch on, and if not, it will die and I can only hope it will be a quick death if it's another useless bit of hype...
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There was a movie, I seem to recall, that showed a virtual file cabinet. The user logged into the database, wore those virtual reality glasses and then saw a hand. There, they could open file drawers and leaf through files contained in the drawers. It was just a big database is all it was, but it was great.
I am a BIG Xbox 360 fan and the thought of browsing through a database with a BFG (for those of you who know Doom) was quite amusing.
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Personally I can't stand fluff of simulated 'walking through shelves' and other irrelevant nonsense.
I want detailed information about products, high res photos where appropriate and effective search capabilities. Let's not make shopping into another damned 'second life'
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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Mark me down as one of the ludites who believes that we don't need 3-D experiences in online shopping. I'm of the mind they could just spend some cash streamlining the process, giving me better search results faster, and making my purchase process easier.
I'm also one of those folks who early on saw SOA as another set of acronyms wrapped around the same old pig in a dress (to expand upon Richard's earlier phrase). Good design is good design, and while SOA has aspects of good design, as an architecture for design it is largely over-hyped and not much more efficient than any other architectural structure.
What I find most unnerving whenever the powers that be introduce some new "paradigm" though isn't how little changes, but how fast businesspeople are overwhelmed and drawn in by the hype. Business would be better served by demanding IT meet business needs than expending so much energy learning the latest terminology for some souped up excuse for why those needs are not met on budget, on time, or at all.
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Remember when there was: Initialization-Process-WrapUP
Then there was: Constructors-Instantiation-DeConstructors
Now there is: LaDeDa-LaDeDe-LaDeDo
BFD (I do not mean 'Big Furry Dog' either):
Different shop window - another marketing pardigm
Diffrent sales staff - another set of acronyms
Different neighborhood - another set of colorfullanguage
and ...
the same sows ear underneat !
Call me another timeless 'ludite' ...
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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The thought of a "first person" shooter experience while sorting through a data base for say duplicate or other corrupted data might be kinda fun.
Almost like the first person experience you'd like to have with the user that put it there in the first place!
But I agree with the other posters, fluff is for kids. I want to be quick and efficient when searching for something. If I need a hands on experience with a product, then its off to the store and not my browser.
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