SOA Approach to Integration

I was recently sent a copy of "SOA Approach to Integration" by Matjaz B. Juric, Ramesh Loganathan, Poornachandra Sarang, and Frank Jennings to review from the good people at http://packtpub.com.

It is a good overview of SOA concepts combined with Integration viewpoint. Integration is handled within SOA. SOA is about integration. Process Oriented Architecture was a term that was introduced. POA is about using BPEL to manage business processes with existing services.

All in all, a good review of SOA issues including ESB, WS specifications, XML considerations.


There are 6 chapters:


1.Integration Architecture, Principles and Patterns

Review of different integration technlologies and types of integration
overview of integration challenges, process is important
SOA and its associated technolgies is a valid approach to integration


2.Service and Process Oriented Architectures

POA is centered on the processes that "use" the services while SOA is about"providing" the services.
POA is the approach from the business side of things. It is about business process and main standards include BPEL, WSCI, etc.


3.Best Practices for Using XML for Integration

Review of XML with tops and issues to watch out for.

4.SOA and Web Services Approach for Integration

SOA is not web services but web services are the specification/technology of choice in the arena.
WS applies to both EAI and B2B as well as SOA.
Included some on the specification process.

5.BPEL and Process-Oriented Approach

Familiarization with BPEL and POA together.
With a sample application of BPEL towards a Billing Process

6.Service and Process Oriented Approach to Integration using Web Services

Putting it all together with the Enterprise Service Bus(ESB).
Discussion of the ESB and what it offers for Integration and SOA.