New Book by Global IT Standards Leader Addresses Practical Implementations of SOA for Enterprise Architects

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced the immediate availability of The SOA Source Book, a new book that addresses service-oriented architecture (SOA) from a perspective of how enterprise architects can use the service principle to deliver unified business and technical architectures for their organizations. Written in conjunction with members of The Open Group's SOA Work Group by Dr. Chris Harding, forum director of the SOA Work Group, the book approaches SOA from a practical standpoint, offering a pragmatic approach for creating service-oriented enterprise architectures.

The SOA Source Book is a direct result of the work coming out of the SOA Work Group since 2005. It is based on the practical experience that SOA Work Group participants have had with SOA as enterprise architects 'in the trenches,' and on the concepts and models abstracted from that experience and developed through the Work Group's meetings and discussions. Like TOGAF(TM), this book aspires to provide systemized common-sense. It is a resource that enterprise architects can put to practical use to help their organizations achieve their business goals through SOA.

"Although there has been much hype surrounding the concept of SOA within the IT industry, many of the problems and disillusionments surrounding SOA have been a direct result of service-orientation not being addressed from an architectural perspective," said Dr. Chris Harding, forum director, SOA Work Group, The Open Group. "Service principles are not losing ground within the realm of IT as many have reported; rather, they are becoming increasingly important as enterprise architecture evolves to address industry ecosystems and the advent of cloud computing. Despite much being written to address the design and programming aspects of SOA, The Open Group is currently one of the few organizations that addresses the architectural aspects of configuring an enterprise's business and technical systems to generate direct business value."

Key themes covered within the book include the following:

• SOA and Enterprise Architecture
• How to evaluate SOA features in business terms
• SOA Reference Materials
• TOGAF for SOA
• SOA Governance

The SOA Source Book is available as hardcopy from The Open Group and Van Haren Publishing and is also available on the web at http://www.opengroup.org/projects/soa-book/. The hardcopy book retails for $40 in the U.S., 28 pounds Sterling in the United Kingdom or for euro 29.95 in Europe.

About the SOA Work Group

The SOA Work Group is a work group of The Open Group's Customer Council and Supplier Council. Its mission is to develop and foster common understanding of SOA in order to facilitate alignment between the business and information technology communities. The Work Group carries out its mission by conducting a work program to produce definitions, analyses, recommendations, reference models, and standards to assist business and information technology professionals within and outside of the Open Group to understand and adopt SOA. In addition, it produces the SOA Source Book, which is a collection of source material for use by enterprise architects working with Service-Oriented Architecture, derived from the work of the project teams. Further information about The SOA Work Group can be found at http://www.opengroup.org/projects/soa/.

About The Open Group

The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, which drives the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow(TM) that will enable access to integrated information within and between enterprises based on open standards and global interoperability. The Open Group works with customers, suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies. Its role is to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies and share best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and to operate the industry's premier certification service. Further information on The Open Group can be found at http://www.opengroup.org.

Note to Editors: Boundaryless Information Flow and TOGAF are trademarks of The Open Group. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

SOURCE The Open Group