Issue 1, 2006
 In
This Issue:
FEATURE
NEWS
CONFERENCES
EVENTS
THE WEB
OTHER
Achieving
Business Agility through Model-Driven SOA
by
Dr. Chris Harding, The Open Group
Service-oriented architectures (SOA) are touted as the key to business
agility, especially when combined with a model-driven approach. Model-Driven
Architecture (MDA) is a well-developed concept that fits well with SOA,
but until now it has been a specialized technique that is beyond the
scope of most enterprises. Can it be made simpler and more accessible,
to become a widely used enabling technology for SOA? With a semantic
approach, the answer may well be “Yes”.
The practical benefits of SOA are being increasingly recognized in many
industries and applications of Information Technology. For example, Rusty
Foreman, Exploration and Production SOA Program Manager for BP, says
that the move to so-called "smart" oil and gas fields, with
real-time collection and analysis of information driving real-time operational
changes, has significant financial benefit, and SOA eliminates the traditional “spaghetti” architecture
that requires many interconnected systems to solve a single problem.
Rusty adds that SOA provides a bridge between the business and technical
worlds, enabling customers to talk about what they really need. But understanding
requirements is just the first step towards business agility. In a truly
agile enterprise, the IT infrastructure is aligned with the business
structure and it can easily be adapted to meet business needs. The promise
of SOA is that this can be achieved by business people who can configure
and orchestrate the SOA services.
This implies that the business people have a model of the enterprise
services, that they configure the model to reflect business needs, and
that this translates directly to the IT implementation, ideally automatically.
Such a model-driven approach is well suited to SOA, because the basic
architectural building blocks are services, which can be described in
a formal language such as the Web Services Definition Language (WSDL).
As architecture guru Rakesh Radhakrishnan of Sun Microsystems says, the
technologies behind MDA help translate high-level models to an entire
IT infrastructure, which allows for the creation of SOA that is decoupled
from the lower level platforms and infrastructures.
The Object Management Group (OMG) has defined a number of standards
for MDA, covering the definition of models and the exchange of model
information. But they are not easy reading. The Meta-Object Facility
Specification, which contains the basic model description definition,
runs to over 350 pages, and explains in its conceptual overview that “the
classical framework for metamodeling is based on an architecture with
four metalayers”. It takes a good brain and considerable dedication
to get beyond this point. MDA requires intelligent, highly trained architects,
and also specialist technology. Good architects are hard to come by,
and specialist technology can be expensive. Small wonder that MDA is
not widely used in enterprises today.
But can MDA be made simpler and more accessible? There is reason to
believe that it can. Enterprise architect David Houlding has shown how
to model SOA using the freely available open source ontology editor Protégé.
With this tool, he implements a knowledge base that represents a concise,
high-level model of the metadata forming the big picture of the enterprise,
enabling knowledge mining to support accurate proactive analysis and
planning. Similar techniques could be used to couple the formal service
descriptions to the high-level model of an SOA.
The semantic approach to SOA implementation is gaining momentum. According
to Sandra Rogers, who is Program Director for SOA, Web Services, and
Integration with IDC, as configurations become more complex, the need
to track related sets of services that form solutions is critical, and
a significant amount of metadata needs to be captured throughout the
development lifecycle. Metadata is at the foundation of SOA. Germany’s
Entory Group, which provides IT consulting and systems integration to
financial services firms, recently adopted a solution based on an SOA
repository in which every system module can store metadata in a standard
XML format, facilitating service re-use. This solution delivered impressive
results, reducing costs by more than 50% and credit management cycle
times by more than 70%.
The recent announcement by IBM, Microsoft and SAP that their UDDI Business
Registry will close, highlights the shortcomings of UDDI, at least for
public web services registries. Against this background, the advantages
of the more flexible semantic-based SOA registries and repositories are
becoming more and more evident.
As with MDA, there is a perception that semantic technology is a specialist
area. Use of philosophical terms such as “ontology” - even
the term “semantics” itself – tends to reinforce this
perception, and the technology is not easy to master. But there is plenty
of free software (such as Protégé) and the tools available
for use with the semantic web. This is crucial, because it enables people
to experiment and learn easily and at low cost, and a growing community
of people is doing just that. As the number of users grows, ways of simplifying
the technology will appear, and better understanding will result. Semantic
technology will become something that ordinary IT architects, in all
kinds of enterprises, can and do use as a matter of course.
In the USA, the General Services Administration (GSA) is leading the
way with OSERA (Open Source eGovernment Reference Architecture) – an
architecture that will combine MDA, SOA, and the Semantic Web. Corey
Casanave, president of Data Access Technologies Inc., which is helping
the GSA to develop OSERA, says that the Semantic Web will enable publication
of re-usable artifacts. He says that one of the dirty little secrets
about MDA is that there are too many ways to talk about the same thing,
with redundant and conflicting semantics, but the Semantic Web provides
a great way to publish models as Web services.
SOA promises business agility through user configuration and orchestration
of services. This can be achieved without MDA, but only through a manual
configuration process. MDA automates that process, and the combination
of SOA and MDA is what is needed for real agility. A semantic approach
makes MDA simpler and more accessible, and improves component re-use.
The Semantic Web standards mean that tools can be interoperable, while
the Semantic Web itself can be a global repository for shared artifacts.
Semantic modeling is the key to success for model-driven SOA.
Currently, enterprises implementing SOA often identify semantic interoperability
as a problem. Perhaps, if they make semantics their starting point,
they will find that they have the solution to achieving business agility
through SOA.
For more information, please contact Dr.
Chris Harding
 Top
of Page
Press
reports on IT Architect Certification
SAP INFO interviews The Open Group's Allen Brown: IT Architect … Profession
of the Future
SAP INFO online interviewed Allen Brown, The Open Group’s
President and CEO, and Graham Bird, The Open Group’s Vice President
of Marketing. In the interview, the executives addressed the role of
IT Architect in integrating and coordinating the IT systems within and
between enterprises, discussed The Open Group’s skills- and experience-
based IT Architect Certification program, and shared their vision for
the IT Architect profession.
 read
the article
Software Development Times: IT Architect Certification
Standards by IBM’s
Andras Szakal
Andras speaks about the evolution of the role of IT Architect, and the
need to recognize IT Architecture as a profession. He emphasizes that IT
decision makers need people with demonstrable practiced skills and a track
record, and welcomes The Open Group’s IT Architect Certification
program
. read
the article
IBM developer Works’ Architecture Zone: Understand
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) and IT architecture in
today's world
The IBM developerWorks Architecture Zone features an article introducing
The Open Group, TOGAF, and ITAC to the IBM worldwide developer community,
which numbers in the millions. You can read the comments of IBM’s
Andras Szakal and David Jackson.
read
the article
Top
of Page
Lottery
Insights showcases launch of NASPL Bar Code Certification Program
In a major cover story, Lottery Insights showcased the launch of
NASPL Bar Code Certification Program, which is designed and operated by The
Open Group. Presenting the launch to their lotteries audience, the magazine
emphasized the value of standards and certification.
Congratulations to the NASPL team on this success!
R read
the full article
Top
of Page
The
Open Group in the Media
The Open Group in the press:
- March 8, 2006 - SC Magazine: It’s
time for us all to raise our game
- March 6, 2006 - SC Magazine: World
without frontiers
- March 1, 2006 – LWN: Austin
Group details plan and scope for next revision of joint standard
- February 25, 2006 - tuxmachines.org: Judge
Rejects SCO Motions in Its Lawsuit Against IBM [also in desertnews.com ]
- February 21, 2006 – ComputerWeekly : Strategic
success of SOA will depend on real sharing of services and software
tools
- February 21. 2006 - Groklaw: SCO
Attacks The Open Group
- February 20, 2005 – ICT World: Open
Group, Real IRM host international enterprise architecture
conference in Cape Town
- February 15, 2006 – BusinessWire: NetBSD
Operating System to Add Elements of the POSIX(R) Standard
- February 15, 2006 - CertCities: The
Open Group Launches Second Architect Cert
- February 12, 2006 – EbizQ: ISO
11179 Versus Ontologies
- February 10, 2006 - BusinessWire: Interpeak
Initiates Protection Profile for Trusted Stacks to Meet MILS Requirements
- February
9, 2006 – Certification Magazine: Open
Group Adds IT Architect Certification Program Level
- February
6, 2006 – smallcapcenter: Industry
Leaders to Jointly Develop RDMA over Ethernet Open Source
Software for Linux Applications
- February 3, 2006 - SOA Web Services Journal: Building
Blocks of SOA Governance
- February 2, 2006 – EETimes: Java
breaks out
- February 1, 2006 - JISC e-Learning Focus: Tools
for the e-Learning Framework – a workshop from the TELCERT
project
- January 25, 2006 – Forbes: HP
Goes to School
- January 25, 2006 – TMCnet: IBM's
Internal IT Architect Program the First Program to Achieve Accreditation
From The Open Group (also on Yahoo)
- January 21, 2006 – Forbes: IBM's
Internal IT Architect Program the First Program to Achieve
Accreditation From The Open Group
- January 2006 - COTS Journal: Java
Becomes Entrenched as Language of Choice
- January 2006 - SD Times: IT
Architect Certification Standards
Press releases:
Top
Certification
News
IT Architect Certification News
- IT Architect Certification Program
Accreditation
The
Open Group is pleased to announce that IBM’s IT Architect program
has been accredited as conforming to The Open Group's IT Architect Accreditation
Requirements.
Register: http://www.opengroup.org/itac/cert/acp_prodlist.tpl?CALLER=cert_archdir.tpl
- Direct
Certification - Master Certified IT Architects
The Open Group is pleased
to announce the certification of the following individuals as Master Certified
IT Architects:
Johan Bruynseels, EDS; Andreas Buzzi, Credit Suisse; Florian
Generalao, EDS;
Mateen Greenway, EDS; Stephen Lupo, GTECH Corporation; Vijay
Seetharaman, EDS; Jason Uppal, QR Systems Inc
Register: http://www.opengroup.org/itac/cert/cert_archlist.tpl
About the IT Architect Certification Program: http://www.opengroup.org/itac/
TOGAF Certification News
The number of TOGAF 8 Certified Professionals is now close to 900. Current
status of TOGAF Certified products, individuals, services, and tool support:
- TOGAF 8 Certified - 868 Registered Individuals
- TOGAF 8 Training - 10 Registered Products from 8 Companies
- TOGAF 8 Professional Services - 6 Registered Services from 6 Companies
- TOGAF 8 Tool Support - 3 Registered Products from 3 Companies
The full register is available online
Top
TOGAF
8 Standard Courseware Certified
The Open Group has registered TOGAF 8 Standard Courseware as conforming to
the TOGAF 8 Training Product Standard
see
the register
Top
Messaging
Forum re-launches The Message
The Message is the online journal of the Messaging Forum, available free
of charge to subscribers. The latest version published in January 2006 focuses
on the S/MIME Secure Messaging Certification Program. .
subscribe
access
The Message
Top
The
Open Group’s Messaging Forum Offers S/MIME Secure Messaging Architecture
Training
The Open Group Messaging Forum is offering three training events in support
of the S/MIME Secure Messaging Certification program.
- Münster, Germany (in partnership with Noventum Consulting)
- Thursday/Friday April 6-7, 2006 (This course will be delivered in German)
- Washington, DC - Wednesday/Thursday April 26-27, 2006
The objective of these courses is to provide the knowledge, awareness
and understanding of secure messaging (using S/MIME and associated standards)
necessary to be able to design, deploy and configure secure e-mail
systems in conformance to The Open Group S/MIME Secure Messaging Architecture.
more
details and how to register
Top
Test
suite for PSE52 Real-time Controller profile VSPSE52
The Open Group is pleased to announce the first general availability
release of its test suite for the IEEE Std 1003.13-2003 PSE52 Real-time
Controller Profile. This test suite will be used to support the forthcoming
POSIX(R): Certified by IEEE and The Open Group PSE52 Profile Certification
Program
For further information on the test suite see: http://www.opengroup.org/testing/testsuites/vspse52-2003.html
For information on licensing, please contact Birgit Hartje at: b.hartje@opengroup.org
.
further
information on the test suite
for
information on licensing, contact Birgit Hartje
Top
Spotlight
on recent publications – Guide to Security Architecture in TOGAF ADM
The White Paper focuses on security considerations that need to be addressed
in the TOGAF ADM for the guidance of enterprise architects and system designers.
It was developed by The Open Group Security Forum and Members of The Open Group
Architecture Forum. Its primary purpose is as input to the Architecture Forum,
for integrating security considerations into their development of the next
version of TOGAF (designated TOGAF9). It will also be of value to system architects
and designers who include information security considerations in their designs.
order
Top
Join
us in Washington, DC at the Architecting to the Edge™ conference
April 24-26, 2006
Location: Hilton Crystal City in Arlington, VA
In parallel with Member meetings, April 24-28, 2006
Co-located with Convergence of Semantic Naming and Identification Technologies
Conference, on April 27, 2006
In today’s real-time world, getting accurate information into the hands
of the ‘edge user’– be they military first responders, field
sales representatives, or stock traders– is increasingly important. Occurrences
of threats such as terrorism, natural disaster, and extreme weather represent
a major challenge for IT professionals, forcing them to face the convergence
of traditional real-time and non-real-time systems.
Systems at the edge – typically based on highly distributed infrastructure
and interaction of a large number of services – need to be predictive
and dynamic, highly fault-tolerant, and have the capability to operate in real
time; from gathering data for analysis, review, and response to disseminating
information to end users. The conference will address business and technical
requirements of ’edge’ systems, discuss effective solutions, review
best practices and success stories, and demonstrate the latest tools.
Join industry and public sector experts to explore the key issues, business
and technical challenges, and latest advances of architecting to the edge,
getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time. Take
part in three days packed with informative sessions and highly practical workshops,
network with peers, and learn how architecture needs to evolve to address the
increasing demands of ‘edge’ systems.
Discuss dynamic Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) in both business and
military settings.
Keynote:
Dawn Meyerriecks, Vice President for Strategic
Development in the AOL products organization, and Government Computer News'
Department of Defense “Person
of the Year” for 2004
program
more
information
The Open Cannes Awards to Celebrate The Open Group’s 10 th
Anniversary
At the conference, we will also celebrate The Open Group’s 10 th anniversary
- join us for The Open Cannes Awards, a magical evening of awards, dinner and
laughter on Monday, April 24 at 7:30pm
more
information .
Co-located Event: Convergence of Semantic Naming and Identification
Technologies Conference
The
Open Group and the Federal
Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice (SICoP) will jointly present
the Convergence of Semantic Naming and Identification Technologies Conference,
on April 27, 2006 at the Hilton Crystal City in Arlington, VA. The conference
will address the candidate semantic naming and identification standards (such
as RDF/OWL and the Semantic Web, Ontologies, UDEF, and ISO/IEC 11179) and example
use cases (such as RFID, IPV6, and the National Cancer Institute Cancer Data
Standards Repository). At the conclusion of the day’s events, a panel of
the speakers will address the question of whether convergence of these semantic
naming and identification standards and technologies is possible or practical.
Top
Overview
of the IT Architecture Practitioners Conference in Barcelona, Spain
January 23-25, 2006
Over 300 attendees joined The Open Group in Barcelona to discuss
the latest developments and trends in the IT Architecture area, get information
on what works and what does not, share insights, and discuss how to make the
most of their IT budgets and help their companies to reach their goals.
The conference was opened by The Open Group’s President and CEO, Allen
Brown.
The Monday sessions included presentations from Hewlett Packard’s Len
Fehskens on the geography of enterprise architecture; Capgemini’s Stuart
Crawford on the service oriented enterprise, and Gartner Group’s Brian
Burke on enterprise architecture. A joint presentation about practice and profession
of business architecture was given by Capgemini’s Ron Tolido and HP’s
Walter Stahlecker. Alex Cameron from EDS Australia talked about t he EDS Approach
to Enterprise Architecture. Stan Locke from Zachman Framework Associates addressed
the topic of enterprise architecture and the new Zachman Framework, followed
by Judith Jones from Architecting-the-Enterprise who gave an update on the
emerging new TOGAF Framework for enterprise architecture. Issues related to
developing a Framework consistent with enterprise culture and values were presented
by Simon Shapiro, CIO of the Investec Bank from South Africa. The sessions
closed for the day with an updated on The Open Group’s IT Architect Certification
Program presented by The Open Group’s James deRaeve.
Tuesday and Wednesday sessions continued in parallel streams:
Enterprise Architecture; Business and Information Architecture; Service Oriented
Architectures; TOGAF9 Update; S/MIME Secure Messaging Architecture (h ostedby
The Open Group Messaging Forum); Enterprise Architecture and Governance; Key
Issues in Enterprise Architecture Tools; Architecting Enterprise-wide Semantic
Interoperability (Hosted by The Open Group Customer and Supplier
Councils); Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Planning; Architecting Business
Transformation; Enterprise Architecture Deployment and Value Realization; and
Enterprise Architecture Case Studies.
Missed it?
photos
proceedings
Top
Overview
of the IT Architecture Practitioners Conference in Capetown, South Africa,
March 6-7, 2006
By Frank Heydenrych, Real IRM
More than 160 practitioners from around the world attended the conference in
Cape Town, jointly hosted by The Open Group and Real IRM, The Open Group's
local partner and South Africa's leading enterprise architecture specialist.
Open Group President and CEO Allen Brown, presenters and delegates from more
than a dozen countries including organizations such as Anglo Platinum, Sasol,
SARS, Armscor, Woolworths and Sanlam presented on value obtained from and lessons
learnt in enterprise architecture implementations.
The overall message from the dozens of presentations was that enterprise architecture
as a discipline is delivering exceptional value to organizations, and both
business and IT which embrace it will derive huge benefits today and into the
future.
Time for academia, industry to partner on enterprise architecture?
Enterprise architecture is a vital discipline which needs collaboration between
academia and industry if it is to deliver its full value in South Africa
and elsewhere in the world.
This is the word from Mike Lambert, Fellow of The Open Group, lecturer at the
University of Reading, and a speaker at the IT Architecture Practitioners Conference.
"There is growing recognition of how important it is to apply enterprise
architecture as a core competency," says Lambert. "It is vital for
organizations of all sizes to bring the discipline of enterprise architecture
to bear on their business. Those organizations which have committed to enterprise
architecture are enjoying benefits which make them more agile and competitive
in the long term," says Lambert. There is growing awareness of the value
of enterprise architecture, which is driving demand locally and worldwide,
to the extent that demand exceeds supply. "Demand is surging for all types
of architects, but the process for developing them is protracted, so there
is a chronic shortage of top-class enterprise architects" notes Lambert. "As
an industry we are developing all the right measures; now we need to deliver
the architects. Under normal circumstances, it would take a few generations
to develop new enterprise architects, but we don't have this luxury." Accordingly,
Reading University has formed a partnership with commercial organizations to
help fast-track the development of future enterprise architects; he has called
for similar partnerships in South Africa.
Key factors that will enable this are:
- Broadening of the base of university courses to include enterprise architecture.
- Tight partnerships between academic institutions and industry.
- These partnerships need to emulate established professions such as the
medical and legal fraternities, which includes standards setting,
internships to build experience, and structured career development.
The Open Group, the industry body which sets the standards for enterprise
architecture, among others, has committed to working proactively with leading
universities. It has developed TOGAF, The Open Group Architectural Framework,
an industry-standard framework for delivering enterprise architecture. Enterprise
architecture students at Reading University have found that enterprise architects
with TOGAF qualification earn 60% more than those without. In line with this,
it has asked enterprise architecture companies to help develop TOGAF-compliant
training materials and courses to meet needs of universities
proceedings
Top
Look
ahead – IT Architecture Practitioners C onference in Miami, FL
July 17-19, 2006
In parallel with Member meetings, July 17-21, 2006
This highly practical three-day conference and series of workshops will address
the key issues and challenges that face enterprise IT architects today. The
conference is aimed specifically at enterprise IT architecture practitioners
and those directly involved in the management and oversight of enterprise architecture.
The conference will:
- Examine the core competencies enabling the IT architect to define and
implement effective solutions to the needs of the business, and clarify the
skill and experience requirements
- Address architect certification efforts
within the industry
- Provide tutorials on setting up and running an architecture
practice; operating the architecture function as a business unit; assessing
architecture competence; effective enterprise architecture development
and governance strategies; and architecture and business transformation
What will you experience:
- Participation in highly practical workshops teaching best practices in
the enterprise architecture process
- Review of in-depth case studies
from organizations which put theory into practice, learning from them what
works and what doesn't
- Demonstrations and presentations on leading tools
supporting open methods for enterprise architecture
- Networking with leading
architecture experts, vendors, and peers in the enterprise architecture
field.
more
information
Top
Events
of The Open Group
S/MIME Secure Messaging Architecture Training
April 3-4, 2006 - Reading, UK
April
6-7, 2006 - Münster, Germany (in partnership
with Noventum Consulting, course delivered in German)
http://www.opengroup.org/messaging/ssm-training.htm
Architecting
to the Edge™
April 24-26, 2006
Washington DC,
USA (in parallel with The Open Group Member Meetings,
April 24-28, 2006)
http://www.opengroup.org/washington2006
S/MIME Secure Messaging Architecture Training
Washington,
DC - April 26-27, 2006
http://www.opengroup.org/messaging/ssm-training.htm
IT Architecture Practitioners Conference Miami
July
17-19, 2006: Miami, FL, USA
(In parallel with The Open
Group Member Meetings, July 17-21, 2006)
http://www.opengroup.org/miami2006
IT Architecture Practitioners Conference Lisbon
October
23-25, 2006: Lisbon, Portugal
(in parallel with The
Open Group Member Meetings, October 23-27, 2006)
The Open Group’s 2007 Conference Schedule
Jan 29- Feb 2 USA West Coast
April 23-27 Europe
July 23-27 USA East Coast
October 22-26 Europe
Mark your calendar – or visit www.opengroup.org and
download vcs files to load full event details into
your calendar.
Top
Downloads from the Web
Top 10 publication downloads in
January 2006
- The Single UNIX Specification, Version 3
- TOGAF Version
8 'Enterprise Edition'
- Guide to Security Architecture
in TOGAF ADM
- IT Architect Certification Program
- Business Executive’s
Guide to IT Architecture
- Identity Management white
paper
- Security Design Patterns
- X/Open Single Sign-On Service
(XSSO) - Pluggable Authentication
- Distributed
TP: The XA Specification
- TOGAF/MDA Mapping
Top 10 page views in January 2006
- The Open Group home page
- The Base Specifications,
Issue 6
- The Single UNIX® Specification: Keyword
search page
- Architecture home page
- Bookstore home page
- TOGAF 8
- Open Motif
- ITAC
- Open Motif downloads
- Test downloads
Top
Final
Thoughts...
If you would like to send a letter to the editor for possible publication in
the future, if you have any suggestions on what you would like to see covered,
or if you have any comments on any published story or article, please email us
at memnews-feedback@opengroup.org .
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