Then I did a bit more research on WOA and its role in service oriented architectures (SOA) and quickly realized that there's a growing movement toward WOA adoption.
InformationWeek was one of the first to cover this news in what is still a
relevant article on the topic appropriately titled "A Simpler Approach to SOA." They report:
"WOA, like SOA, is an architectural approach to system design, though WOA is resource-oriented rather than service-oriented. What's the difference? While the core SOA design unit is a reusable service that fulfills a distinct business function, resource-oriented services are more limited and data-focused."
But let's be clear, WOA won't replace SOA. In fact, they're complementary architectures and there are a number of experts that are recommending WOA as the starting point to SOA.
Now throw in the concept of cloud computing and you have the perfect storm of WOA, SOA and the cloud. At first it's easy to see the leap from WOA to SOA. So where does the cloud fit in? Well, while each of these concepts - WOA, SOA and cloud - all offer slightly different approaches to the way we access and use information to do our jobs better, the reality is that all roads lead to architecture. Without the proper architecture in place, an SOA, WOA or cloud strategy will fail to meet its perceived expectations.
While there is no shortage of features and books on each of these topics, perhaps the best way to get a handle on the intersection of SOA, WOA and the cloud is to discuss it among colleagues.
More than a fireside chat and less than a long, hot day in summer school, WebLayers is hosting a roundtable on the subject led by industry pundit Joe McKendrick. With expertise in SOA, Joe has some very interesting insights on the topic. In fact, I bet you'll especially appreciate his take in a recent ZDNet blog post,
"Whoa WOA, Are acronyms clouding up the cloud?" Since this discussion will be an open Q&A forum, we invite you to participate in "Floating Governance to the Cloud through Web Oriented Architectures and 'as a service' Environments." This webinar is being held on Monday, July 13 at 2:00 EDT and offers an opportunity for the industry to discuss the relevance and intersection of these three growing trends. A link to registration is here and we hope you’ll join us for this lively discussion.
-Jeff