* Endorsed by all major vendors (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and SAP), SOA has quickly become the industry standard for building next-generation software; this practical guide shows readers how to achieve the many benefits of SOA
* Begins with a look at the architectural principles needed to create successful applications and then goes on to examine the process for designing services and SOA implementations
* Each stage of the design process has an accompanying chapter that walks readers through the details and provides helpful tips, techniques, and examples
* The author team of SOA practitioners also provides two unique, comprehensive, end-to-end case studies illustrating the architectural and design techniques presented in the book

The challenge today's IT professionals face is not how to build a service. It's how to build a quality service, based on solid design principles and integrated into an architecture that enhances overall business processes. If you are a systems architect or designer, a business analyst, or an IT manager, this book gives you the architecture and design principles along with a methodology that empowers you to meet that challenge. Here are the tools you need to develop services that deliver the benefits of SOA.

* Understand how SOA provides improved flexibility, reduced costs, and competitive advantages
* Examine the overall enterprise context, architectural layers, domain-specific concepts, and essential service characteristics
* Learn how to align SOA with your business, identify services, and create solutions
* Explore business architecture and business process modeling
* See how to design service interfaces and implementations
* Create enterprise services that integrate existing applications and data
* Create enterprise solutions from existing services
* Apply security blueprints for determining and implementing appropriate safeguards
* Utilize successful techniques for flexible servicecomposition and semantic interoperability
* Prepare to effectively manage your projects, utilizing best practices and strategies for SOA management and governance
* Benefit from detailed case study examples