
Is REST the future for SOA?
In this article Boris Lublinsky discusses architectural difference between SOA and REST and discusses different approaches for leveraging REST in SOA implementations

In this article Boris Lublinsky discusses architectural difference between SOA and REST and discusses different approaches for leveraging REST in SOA implementations
The Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization has just announced that its mission has been accomplished and it is transferring all future efforts to OASIS. Is this just business as usual, or is this further evidence that WS-* is on the wane?
In a recent blog posting the RESTful credentials of Adobe's Flash are called into question. Duane Nickull, one of the main authors behind the OASIS SOA Reference Architecture and Adobe evangelist, responds by illustrating why the core principles behind SOA and REST are well supported within Flash.

Marc de Graauw challenges the notion that transport-level reliability mechanisms like WS-ReliableMessaging are needed, showing how business-specific logic for in-order and exactly-once processing do the job much better with examples from Dutch Healthcare's SOA.

Using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) it is possible to lower the costs of information systems. Paradigms which are appropriate to database era are still being applied to SOA, resulting in counterproductive, and sometimes even dangerous designs. The author explores ways to achieve the potential of SOA initiatives by adhering to ten basic commandments.
Stefan Tilkov makes a case for using REST in an enterprise SOA solution showing how to implement tricky features like encapsulation, transactions, stateful communication, reliable messaging, notifications, and security. He also offers advice on how to convince the management to use REST and how to implement it at the enterprise level, including mixing it with WS* when mandatory.

Paul Downey discusses the risks of premature standardisation, unnatural constraints, partial implementations and open extensions, how to avoid cloud computing lock-in, formal activities versus lightweight open processes as exemplified by open source, Microformats, OpenID, OAuth and other Web conventions being ratified through open, lightweight, continuous agreement.

Tim Bray talks about why he is not convinced with the buzz surrounding Rich Internet Applications and shares his ideas on Cloud Computing. He also expresses his opinion regarding the debate REST vs. WS-* and the future directions web technologies will be taking.

In this interview from QCon San Francisco 2008, Ian Robinson discusses REST vs. WS-*, REST contracts, WADL, how to approach company-wide SOA initiatives, how an SOA changes a company, SOA and Agile, tool support for REST, reuse and foreseeing client needs, versioning and the future of REST-based services in enterprise SOA development.

Composite Software offers a new level of granularity when compared to SaaS (Software as a Service). Composite Software is about enabling "right-sourcing", i.e. move (or keep) arbitrary small or large elements of functionality wherever it is the most cost effective to operate them, not just entire systems. Economically, "right-sourcing" is far more efficient than "outsourcing" and SaaS. The goal of this book is start by understanding today’s software construction processes and technologies and explore why and how it should be evolved to support core composition mechanisms.