Service Oriented Architecture

COMMON Annual Meeting COMMON IT Executive Conference COMMON Fall Conference & Expo COMMON Webcasts COMMON Webinars COMMON Seminars Future Conferences/LUG Events Speakers Corner >>

Online Session Guide Pre-conference Workshops All-day Integrated Seminars Week-at-a-Glance Schedule Professional Development Night IBM Certification Testing Return on Investment First-Timers Kit Exhibitor List ELITE Exhibitors List Info for Exhibitors/Sponsors Free IBM Sales Course Speaker Excellence Awards

Expo Background Exhibiting Information Advertising Information Sponsorship Information ELITE information

COMMON Contacts Call for Presentations Prepare to Speak at COMMON >> Upload Session Material Registration Information Session Eval Results Speaker Benefits >> Speaker FAQs Speaker Excellence Awards Online Session Guide/My Grid

Prepare Session Content Prepare Slides Slide Template Prepare Handouts Speaker Medal Icons Loading Lab Software In the Session Room Onsite Checklist Book Sales COMMON Code of Ethics Speaker Understanding

Credits & Reimbursement Benefit Guidelines Speaker Awards Volunteer Excellence Committee

Apply for/Renew Membership Member Benefits >> Scholastic Membership Return on Investment COMMON Pricing Member Testimonials Volunteers >> Members-Only Log-in Change or Request Password

Education/Handouts COMMON Career Center COMMON.CONNECT magazine iSociety Online Member Directory IBM Training Discount IBM Used Equipment Discount IBM Trade-in Program IBM e-Briefings Enterprise Rental Car Discounts Speakers Bureau

Open Volunteer Positions How to Volunteer >> Award-winning Volunteers Speaker Excellence Awards

Job Description Subject Matter Expert Description TLC Description Speaker Assistant Description

Mission, Vision and Goals Code of Ethics >> COMMON FAQ Board of Directors COMMON Staff Strategic Education Team COMMON Education Foundation International COMMON Groups COMMON Acronyms Contact Us Young i Professionals (YiPs) Retired i Professionals (RiPs) COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC)

Conference Offerings Policy Distribution of Work and Education Material Policy

Conference Handouts COMMON.CONNECT magazine AIX Requirements IBMi Requirements Online Member Directory Archived Webcasts IBM Training discount IBM Used Equipment discount IBM trade-in program Enterprise Rental Car Discounts Speakers Bureau Change or Request Password Member Archives >>

Board Meeting Minutes COMMON Bylaws Audit Report Policies and Procedures Future Conference Sites

Scholarship Information Foundation Leadership Scholarship Recipients Volunteer Memorial Scholarship Recipients

Press Releases Media Interviews

Focus on Service Oriented Architecture

In addition to covering a wide range of technical topics, each COMMON conference includes a special educational focus. The focus for the Spring 2006 Conference & Expo is a cutting-edge technology that every midrange user should learn about: Service Oriented Architecture, or SOA.

Here is what COMMON speaker Al Grega has to say about SOA:

By now you are probably wondering exactly what SOA is. First of all, SOA is not some new tool that software companies are trying to sell, although there are many products that leverage a Service Oriented Architecture. SOA is not all about Web services, however Web services do play a big role in any Service Oriented Architecture.

Rather, SOA is a new way of looking at your business. Instead of seeing applications, servers and partners, you need to see your business as a collection of services. Each one of these services is an individual re-usable business task, like opening a account or checking a credit score. Service Orientation is looking at your business as groups of linked services and the functions they provide. Service Oriented Architecture is how you get there; it is the IT architectural style you use to implement your SOA.

COMMON is a lot like SOA. The hundreds of sessions offered by COMMON are a lot like services, each provides you the key information you need to perform a specific task like configuring the iSeries HTTP Server. Service Orientation is like the Focused Education Roadmaps we offer. Each Roadmap provides you with the list of sessions you need to attend to complete a process, like building a Web site. Services Oriented Architecture is like the COMMON conference itself, pulling in resources from IBM, Business Partners and other COMMON members to provide these sessions.

What makes SOA unique and worthy of your attention is that no one company or group owns the standards that largely make up SOA. Fifteen years ago it was difficult for systems from different manufactures to network with each other. UNIX servers used Ethernet and TCP/IP to communicate. Mainframes used SNA (LU 6.2) and high-speed point-to-point networks to do the same. Now virtually every server, desktop and even pervasive devices can easily communicate with each other. This is exactly what SOA is doing with applications and the software industry. With SOA it won't matter if you are an RPG, COBOL, C, Java or C# developer because anyone can deploy their applications with this architecture.

The iSeries platform is well suited for this SOA and COMMON is planning a workshop and many educational sessions, labs and events to help get your organization started fast.

Robert LeBlanc, General Manager of IBM Application and Integration Middleware Software (WebSphere), and the owner of IBM's SOA mission will be the Opening Session keynote speaker helping kick off the conference and the SOA focus on Sunday. At the Expo, you will be able to easily identify vendors with SOA solutions or tools, and you can attend many sessions and labs during the week to get practical hands on experience. We hope to be your one-stop shopping for SOA education on iSeries and we look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis!