The SOA KISS… May 24, 2010
Posted by Sanooj Kutty in Service Oriented Architecture.Tags: Architecture, IT, IT management, Service Oriented Architecture, SOA
1 comment so far
Doesn’t this title sound a bit weird?
Well, I was fortunate enough to be invited to review Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs): A Plain English Guide and I must say Don Fornes of Software Advice has easily deployed the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” in this easy to understand write-up on SOA. To be honest, being pulled more towards the business side in my role to bridge the wide Business-IT gap. it has been a welcome refresher and learning curve.
If you are stuck in this new overwhelming world of SOA and not able to define its true place within your IT framework, this article is a good place to free yourself from the complexities of this evolving practice. Don’s attempt to relate SOA fundamentals to simple Business practices on a day-to-day basis is a good guide to adopting SOA as a daily practice.
He also highlights the basic requirement of achieving SOA - “It takes a disciplined IT department and substantial investment to make SOA work.” This naturally raises a simple question if SOA can help Small and Medium Enterprises. Most SME operate with a handful of Jack of all Trades to run their IT systems. More special services are usually procured from specific vendors as and when needed. Until such time as SOA develops to reach the SME, we will witness this being a hype implemented only by those with deep pockets. This is also witnessed in the ECM domain where SME focused solutions have helped it gain acceptance and maturity.
However, unlike ECM, SOA cannot be constrained to an application. It is, as explained by Don, a management practice for IT. It’s funny how this also raises another question. How much of the business management capability examples provided by Don can a developer or a system administrator adhere to?
As SOA is more of an IT Management practice, would this mean the IT organizational structure would now have to model itself based on different aspects of SOA just as Business has divided itself into HR, Finance, Sales, etc.?
Don has surely made an honest attempt to describe SOA in plain english. In fact, he has done it quite well. What worries me more is if today’s generation is ready to manage beyond the black and white (1 and 0) that has built IT and into SOA’s grey world of management. A quick glance at the IT educational model today sees very little of management and a heavy load of technology. If SOA is to succeed, it has to start at the grassroots of IT education and not within corporations. It is more management than technology.
Thank you Don for this plain English guide on SOA. The SOA-KISS, unfortunately, does not seem juicy enough! Not just yet!
What will you take to your grave? May 18, 2010
Posted by Sanooj Kutty in Electronic Records Management.Tags: CAA, collaborationx ERM, culture, electronic records managementx, FDA, FSA, inventoryx information governancex records management, KM, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, records, regulations, risk, SEC, storage, strategy
add a comment
“The only thing a man takes to his grave is his Knowledge. Acquire when alive, distribute before death.” ~ Late K. A. Abu Backer, my grandfather and a high school Math teacher.
If not in his true sense, the fossils and historical tombs like the Pyramids have surely carried with them knowledge. How else would we know that the Egyptians must have used the Pythagoras Theorem to build their Pyramids?
These fossils and Pyramids and other historical remains and relics are nothing but an organic records keeping exercise conducted either by nature or man’s ego. These have over time given future generations an insight into the past, to learn from it and also recover lost knowledge through them.
Much is being spoken today about Information Governance or ERM or Rose or whatever name you or Shakespeare may want to call it. And yes, organizations have been fined from thousands to millions of dollars due to poor records keeping practices and we still see these happening on a day to day basis.
Read more at AIIM Communities. Click here.
Bringing home the Power, Softly… May 18, 2010
Posted by Sanooj Kutty in Enterprise 2.0.Tags: change, culture, e20, enterprise 2.0
add a comment
E 2.0 is tomorrow’s “Hello World”. The way LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and to a lesser extent Xing and Orkut are taking over the world is ample proof that heavy-headed technology can deliver light-hearted solutions.
Friendship, Business and even Courtship are the horses on which these communication and collaboration environments have been riding into the sunset. Although not in the classic romantic mold of Alfred Noyes’ Highway Man, they have nonetheless charmed millions into falling madly in love with them.
Read more at AIIM Communities. Click here.
