Information technology (IT) has had to
reposition itself on an ongoing basis.
The evolution has gone from centralized mainframes to client/server, Windows and
Web services to what is now known as
“service-oriented architecture and infrastructure” (SOA-I). SOA-I is a paradigm
change in that it’s a framework and mind-set that links required business needs to IT
resources. Simply put, SOA-I is an
approach to IT design where IT services
are assembled from reusable technology
components that are available on demand.
To some, that may be enough information
for a full understanding of SOA-I. To most,
it is more computer jargon that begs for
additional explanation.
“I like to use the comparison of a custom-service restaurant to a high-quality buffet
to easily explain SOA-I,” says Omar Yakar,
CEO of Agile360 Inc. “Imagine being hungry and going to a nice restaurant where
there is no menu, and you order anything
you like. The chef must prepare the meal,
perhaps going out for ingredients that may
not be easily available, which could take a
long time. However, a high-quality buffet
lets you choose just what you want from
available items — and you get to eat right
away. Which one do you think is more economical and satisfying?”
Smart Business talked with Yakar for
further clarification as to what SOA-I is and
what it can mean to a business.
How do you analogize SOA-I to a high-quality buffet?
Before SOA-I, you could go to your IT
staffers and give them a problem to solve
or tell them what you wanted to accomplish with technology. They would most
likely design a solution that would do just
what you wanted, but would be incremental to your other IT systems. This approach
is like the fancy restaurant. You get what
you want but it might take awhile until you
can start eating, and it’s really expensive.
You choose one item to be your appetizer,
one as your salad and an entrée. The waiter takes your order back to the chef so he
can custom prepare your meal. If one of
the ingredients in the menu description is
not in the kitchen, the chef has to send for
it and wait. If he doesn’t know how to prepare that item, he tries his best. Customization takes time and adds to the cost of
the meal without ensuring quality.
SOA-I is like the high-quality buffet. The
restaurateur individually prepares each of
the items on the buffet and you just dish up
what you want and sit down to eat it. If you
don’t want lamb, you don’t pick it up or
dish up anything containing it. If you want
prime rib and a salad, you just add it.
With SOA-I, various technology components have been de-coupled. You pick what
you want, plug it in and start using it as a
service.
How does this help the company?
It costs the restaurateur more to custom
prepare each meal and to have numerous
ingredients on hand. It also takes more
people to custom prepare each meal. If the kitchen runs out of a particular ingredient,
the food preparers either have to send
someone out to get it or disappoint you by
not filling your order.
The same goes with the old paradigm of
custom filling any IT needs.
With SOA-I, the buffet operator has
already prepared different items ahead of
time and placed them on the buffet table to
satisfy a variety of diners. You decide what
services you need such as remote Web
access, processing power, storage, security
or regulatory options, or any other services
desired to fill an order. The information
needed to fulfill the order may be supplied
from various applications, all seamlessly
working together without the cost of customization.
Service-oriented companies can show
significant savings in maintenance, personnel, software and hardware costs while
providing technology solutions that are
agile and can rapidly change to fit their customers’ needs and potential emerging markets.
How do we automate so business analysts
can order off the buffet themselves?
It starts with the SOA-I framework, or
mindset, where the IT provider publishes
individual technology components and the
business analyst picks only what he or she
needs to deliver a new application. We call
this provisioning — connecting technology
components to turn on a business service.
At the buffet, the end user provisions the
meal. In SOA-I, the end user provisions
software as a service.
With clear goals, you can dramatically
improve time to value, drive down costs
and improve business agility.
OMAR YAKAR is CEO of Agile360 Inc. in Irvine. Reach him at
(949) 253-4106 or [email protected].