Event-Driven Architecture: How SOA Enables the Real-Time Enterprise

Improving Business Agility with EDA

Going beyond SOA, enterprises can gain even greater agility by implementing event-driven architectures (EDAs) that automatically detect and react to significant business events. However, EDA planning and deployment is complex, and even experienced SOA architects and developers need expert guidance. In Event-Driven Architecture, four leading IT innovators present both the theory of EDA and practical, step-by-step guidance to implementing it successfully.

The authors first establish a thorough and workable definition of EDA and explore how EDA can help solve many of today’s most difficult business and IT challenges. You’ll learn how EDAs work, what they can do today, and what they might be able to do as they mature. You’ll learn how to determine whether an EDA approach makes sense in your environment and how to overcome the difficult interoperability and integration issues associated with successful deployment. Finally, the authors present chapter-length case studies demonstrating how both full and partial EDA implementations can deliver exceptional business value. Coverage includes

Hugh Taylor is a social software evangelist for IBM Lotus Software. He coauthored Understanding Enterprise SOA and has written extensively on Web services and SOA. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Angela Yochem is an executive in a multinational technology company and is a recognized thought leader in architecture and large-scale technology management. Les Phillips, VP, enterprise architecture, at SunTrust Banks Inc., is responsible for defining the strategic and business IT foundation for many areas of the enterprise. Frank Martinez, EVP, product strategy, at SOA Software, is a recognized expert on distributed, enterprise application, and infrastructure platforms. He has served as senior operating executive for several venture-backed firms and helped build Intershop Communications into a multibillion-dollar public company.

Foreword     xi

Preface     xii

Introduction      1

Event-Driven Architecture: A Working Definition     1

The “New” Era of Interoperability Dawns     6

The ETA for Your EDA     9

Endnotes     9

PART I THE THEORY OF EDA

Chapter 1 EDA: Opportunities and Obstacles     13

The Vortex     13

EDA: A Working Systemic Definition     14

The (Not So Smooth) Path to EDA     24

Defining Interoperability     26

Drivers of Interoperability     28

Application Integration: A Means to Interoperate     29

Interoperation and Business Process Management     31

Is There a Diet for All This Spaghetti?      35

How Architecture Promotes Integration     37

Management and Governance     39

Chapter Summary     43

Endnote     45

Chapter 2 SOA: The Building Blocks of EDA     47

Making You an Offer You Can’t Understand     47

SOA: The Big Picture     48

Defining Service     49

Service-Based Integration     50

Web Services     51

What Is SOA?      59

Loose Coupling in the SOA     60

Chapter Summary     61

Chapter 3 Characteristics of EDA     63

Firing Up the Corporate Neurons     63

Revisiting the Enterprise Nervous System     63

The Ideal EDA     78

BAM--A Related Concept     86

Chapter Summary     87

Endnotes     89

Chapter 4 The Potential of EDA     91

Introduction     91

EDA’s Potential in Enterprise Computing     91

EDA and Enterprise Agility     100

EDA and Society’s Computing Needs     102

EDA and Compliance     107

Chapter Summary     108

Chapter 5 The SOA-EDA Connection     111

Getting Real     111

Event Services     112

The Service Network     114

Implementing the SOA and Service Network     116

How to Design an SOA     122

The Real “Bottom Line”      134

Chapter Summary     137

PART II EDA IN PRACTICE

Chapter 6 Thinking EDA     141

A Novel Mind-Set     141

Reducing Central Control     142

Thinking about EDA Implementation     148

When EDA Is Not the Answer