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However, there is a development methodology that we believe warrants it's
current hype and promise. This development methodology is referred to as
a Service Oriented Architecture (or by it's acronym, SOA
).
This architecture is not new to the IT industry. In fact, it is well over
20 years old. There are newer technologies (primarily web services and
XML) which are enabling the full benefits of SOA
.
Software Experts .NET follows an SOA
model for all new application solutions developed. In fact, we have built
a significant portfolio of reusable services to give us a considerable
advantage when bidding or developing new application solutions.
We are strong believers in this architecture because we have actually
experienced the benefits AND we have a growing portfolio of services which we
are using in a variety of applications.
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At a very high level, a web application, developed conforming to SOA, would
be developed as an integration of a defined set of services. These
services could include login, security, session handling, customer
retrieval/updates, order retrieval/updates, email, faxing, text messaging,
alerts, etc. These services can be used by your specific applications AND by your
customers/partners applications in a Business-to-Business (B2B) type
environment.
These services can be built from scratch, purchased from a vendor or reused from
existing service portfolio's.
We offer a more in depth definition for this type of architecture in our "Definitions
- Service Oriented Architecture" section of this website.
Designing and developing a system following this architecture requires a unique
approach (compared to a more traditional design and development effort).
See our "technology expertise" area on this
website to see how these services (represented as web services) look in a
typical SOA execution environment.
A quick list of the benefits of using SOA for application development
includes:
-
Quicker Development Times
- reuse existing services, only develop those not available.
-
Less Costs
- high reusability means less development.
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Consistent Conformance to Business Rules
- non proprietary architecture means services can be used by a variety of
internal and external systems.
-
High Performance
- architecture is very scalable and can support large transaction volumes.
-
Creative Software Pricing - supports a "pay for what you really use"
software pricing model (based on service utilizations).
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