This book demonstrates service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a concrete discipline rather than a hopeful collection of cloud charts. Built upon the author's firsthand experience rolling out a SOA at a major corporation, SOA in Practice explains how SOA can simplify the creation and maintenance of large-scale applications. Whether your project involves a large set of Web Services-based components, or connects legacy applications to modern business processes, this book clarifies how — and whether — SOA fits your needs. SOA has been a vision for years. This book brings it down to earth by describing the real-world problems of implementing and running a SOA in practice. After defining SOA's many facets, examining typical use patterns, and exploring how loose coupling helps build stronger applications, SOA in Practice presents a framework to help you determine when to take advantage of SOA. In this book you will:

Focus squarely on real deployment and technology, not just standards maps

Examine business problems to determine which ones fit a SOA approach before plastering a SOA solution on top of them

Find clear paths for building solutions without getting trapped in the mire of changing web services details

Gain the experience of a systems analyst intimately involved with SOA

"The principles and experiences described in this book played an important role in making SOA at T-Mobile a success story, with more than 10 million service calls per day." —Dr. Steffen Roehn, Member of the Executive Committee T-Mobile International (CIO) "Nicolai Josuttis has produced something that is rare in the over-hyped world of SOA; a thoughtful work with deep insights based on hands-on experiences. This book is a significant milestone in promoting practical disciplines for all SOA practitioners." —John Schmidt, Chairman, Integration Consortium "The book belongs in the hands of every CIO, IT Director and IT planning manager." —Dr. Richard Mark Soley, Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group; Executive Director, SOA Consortium