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