Web services facilitate a pplication-to-application integration and interoperability across different platforms. However, critics usually point to an inefficient processing model and bandwidth requirements for developing Web services. This is often cited as a reason why Web services cannot perform and scale well in production environments. This session takes a detailed look at performance and scalability issues around Web services in the real world, as well as strategies that architects and developers can adopt to mitigate such risks in these applications. Some analytical and modeling strategies that enable acceptable application performance will also be covered.

A service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the design blueprint for seamless connectivity between business processes and IT infrastructure, enabling innovation and improving productivity. SOA provides the most efficient, standard way to dynamically interoperate with any customer, supplier, product or employee. SOA makes integration intrinsic. Web services are the foundation building blocks of an SOA, and they are already proliferating inside most enterprises. In an SOA, Web services become business services with the ability to perform a particular function or access data dynamically. This presentation will discuss the four abilities that a registry provides for an SOA.

Replacing complex, monolithic applications with nimble applications built from exposed services promises increased developer productivity, greater flexibility, and ultimately reduced cost. The adoption of Web services and SOA can also remove a significant level of complexity and integration problems from enterprise application development projects. But, as with any large-scale project, IT departments must have the right plan and the right resources in place to ensure a successful transformation of their computing infrastructure. This article will explore what IT organizations need to know to be successful in their attempts to migrate the enterprise to a service-oriented architecture.

IT leaders are hoping to leverage the benefits inherent in Web services and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) to enable their businesses to be far more competitive and to find new operational efficiencies. But, can we depend on these new technologies and approaches? Management and security are a common concern today and this session provides the necessary background and perspective on both the business and the technical issues. We will examine important principles and recommendations using real-world examples to illustrate key concepts.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) represents the opportunity to achieve broad-scale interoperability, while providing the flexibility required to continually adapt technology to business requirements. No small feat, particularly when one considers the extent and complexity of today's IT environments. As both a technology concept and IT discipline, the challenge inherent in SOAs is maintaining the right architectural approach. If all services in an SOA are treated as interdependent point-to-point interfaces, then the complexity of implementing and maintaining them in this spaghetti-like architecture becomes enormous. The enterprise service bus (ESB) has emerged as one of the first true SOA product offerings, bringing SOA from pattern to production. ESBs provide a framework for building and deploying an event-driven, enterprise SOA and accommodate the configuration, hosting, and management of integration components as services across the business.

In the past year, Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) have become mainstream because of their ability to provide business agility and flexibility through integration, productivity, and reuse. With SOA enablement on the rise, IT groups must address SOA governance as a means of controlling what and how services located within an SOA are deployed. This session will discuss SOA governance, specifically how an organization can manage and control assets and artifacts located within an enterprise, while ensuring that deployed assets meet an organization?s business and technical architectural standards. It will also outline governance best practices such as monitoring the UDDI publish process in order to seamlessly tie together the development and operational views of Web services within the enterprise.

One of the great benefits of a service-oriented architecture is the ability it gives you to extend programmatic integration capabilities to business partners. Going beyond simple sharing of data with partners, SOA enables true B2B application integration. At the same time, this capability creates a vexing security policy enforcement dilemma. How can you be sure that a user from a partner organization is actually authorized to integrate with your applications? How can you authenticate that user? Do you even want that headache in the first place? This session will discuss the issues that arise in B2B security policy enforcement and explore several proven approaches to solving the problem. In particular, it will focus on the emerging technology of XML Virtual Private Networks (XML-VPNs) and their potential to mitigate security policy enforcement issues in B2B SOA implementations.

Too often today the preferences, terms, and conditions describing how a Web service behaves when discovered and invoked is programmed right into the business logic. Hard-coding this behavior logic however introduces cost, complexity, and rigidity into a Web services architecture. A better approach is to abstract a Web services usage 'policy' out of code where this metadata can be managed as need be. This session introduces the concept of Web Services Policy and describes how the construct can be used to implement a more customized and versatile Web service infrastructure.

Web services are gaining industry-wide acceptance and usage and are moving from proof-of-concept deployments to actual usage in mission-critical enterprise applications. Web services range from major services such as storage management and customer relationship management to much more limited services such as furnishing stock quotes or providing weather information. As companies and consumers begin to rely more and more on Web services, the need for developing reliable, high-quality Web services is even stronger. This session will explain issues specific to Web services and will illustrate solid engineering and testing practices required to ensure complete Web service functionality, interoperability, and security. Whether creating Web services from scratch or integrating a legacy back-end server via Web services, the practices and principles outlined in this session will be of great benefit.

Most businesses store and query data with relational databases but need to use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to exchange and display data on the Web and with vendors and partners. As a result, programmers need to deal with both relational and XML data, often at the same time. Emerging standards such as XQuery, XQJ, and SQL/XML, promise to revolutionize data exchange and the ways applications are developed, deployed, and utilized. Learn the key facts about these standards, including what they mean, when they will be available, and what you, the developer, can do to prepare.

Implementing service oriented architecture (SOA) for Fortune 50 corporations takes more than a hit-or-miss approach. This presentation will provide attendees with insights into a practical, lessons-learned approach to the implementation of an SOA architecture through a short examination of some composite applications and a panel discussion. The opening of the presentation will use demonstrations to present an overview of the business problems and architectural goals of one key client's march to SOA. The following panel discussion addresses SOA concerns by allowing audience members to interact with a panel of experts on User Interface Design, Business Analysis, and Technical Architecture on best practices and lessons learned. Come to this session armed with your business problems and key questions to help all of us better understand the SOA world.

Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are emerging as an integral part of the enterprise IT strategy. According to a recent IDC study, Web services-related revenue is expected to triple from $1.1 billion worldwide in 2003, to $3.4 billion in 2004, and $16.6 billion by 2008. As SOAs proliferate and the number of Web services added to them increases, standards will play an increasingly significant role. This session will look at the state of key Web services standards such as WS-Choreography, WS-Reliability and WS-ReliableMessaging, SOAP/MTOM/XOP, WSDL, XPath, XQuery, and WS-Notification as well as related Java standards and open source efforts. It will also look at the organizational impact of standards adoption in the industry.

Despite the open industry standards that underlie Web services, interoperability has been a key challenge for vendors and customers implementing Web services. One reason for this is that the relevant industry standards often permit multiple acceptable implementation alternatives. This presentation will discuss in detail the challenge of Web services interoperability and the role played by the premier industry organization formed to address it, the Web Services Interoperability Organization. In particular, the presentation will cover the critical importance of WS-I profiles to an organization's Web services initiatives, including the manner in which companies can put WS-I profiles immediately to work.