SOA Performance: Improve Business Response and Adaptability

The service-oriented approach to enterprise software architecture replaces large, complex, monolithic applications with applications composed of loosely coupled collections of modular software components linked through well-defined Web service interfaces. IT and line-of-business managers are increasingly looking toward real-time applications that depend on SOA performance to make their enterprises more competitive than ever.

For the business, the result is movement toward what is often referred to as the "real-time enterprise." Because applications have well defined service-based integration points, and because these services are built on standards embraced by every major enterprise software vendor, connecting software systems together will be orders of magnitude easier than in the past.

The ability to move the right information, to the right people and systems, at the right time, maximizes the ability of the enterprise to identify and interpret changes in its markets and to respond by adjusting its processes, operating models or structure.

SOA Improves IT Responsiveness to Business Change

The business response to changing market conditions often calls for modifying the information systems that run the business. Frequently it requires the creation or integration of entirely new applications. For the IT organization tasked with these activities, the result of SOA adoption is a decrease in the cost and a dramatic increase in the velocity with which these changes can be made.

Cost is reduced in the application development cycle because existing application modules and services can be leveraged as building blocks, eliminating the costly and repetitive exertion of effort that often slows today’s initiatives. In addition, because application modules have well-defined service interfaces that facilitate plugging and unplugging, it is far easier to initially or eventually outsource an application component or to purchase and integrate packaged application logic.

Overall Advantages of the SOA Approach

Velocity improvements also follow from the SOA approach. Because Web Services application development becomes more like "application assembly" when building on existing services, development time is slashed. Whereas application complexity was high with monolithic systems design, the modularity and relative simplicity of application components in an SOA makes them easier to understand and therefore to enhance and change. In addition to lowering costs, the ability to outsource or purchase packaged solutions, and then easily integrate them into the application environment, speeds change.

For More Information

Learn more about SOA performance – and how it can improve your response to change on the network. Download the free webinar, Runtime Governance.