There is now a direct, provable link between an organization’s flexibility and business performance. To optimize flexibility, companies must achieve unprecedented levels of integration and automation of key processes and infrastructure, both internally and externally. At the same time, they must learn to manage their processes far more dynamically and responsively.
They must become flex-pon-sive*.
Until recently, technology stood in the way of achieving these goals. Thanks to the emergence of service oriented architecture (SOA), Web 2.0, and open standards, technology now enables companies to achieve those goals. In The New Language of Business, one of IBM’s top SOA strategist demonstrates how business leaders can use innovations in technology to drive dramatic process improvements and support accelerating change.
Sandy Carter shows how to deconstruct your business into a “componentized” business model, then support that model with linked, repeatable IT services that can adapt quickly, easily, and economically. These techniques will help both IT professionals and business leaders reach new levels of operational excellence to deliver the market-focused innovations that matter most.
Sandy Carter is Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Strategy, Channels and Marketing for IBM Corporation. Sandy is responsible for driving IBM’s cross-company, worldwide SOA marketing initiatives, and in this role, helps oversee the company’s SOA strategy across software, services and hardware and sets the company’s SOA marketing direction. Sandy has played a critical role in helping to identify SOA acquisition targets and ensure the successful integration of these organizations into the IBM SOA portfolio. Additionally, she directs SOA messaging and content, leading a global team in driving customer demand for IBM and IBM Business Partner SOA solutions.
Sandy’s track record speaks for itself: 4Q2006 marked the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit WebSphere Family growth, and the WebSphere brand has won seven industry awards. In addition, she has helped IBM’s SOA initiatives consistently earn third party validation and top leadership rankings by analysts and pundits alike, as evidenced by these reports: Dwight B. Davis, from Ovum said, “IBM’s approach to the SOA market is more comprehensive and more coherent than any other vendor’s plan at the moment.”, while Barrons reported “SOA has become a buzzword for the growing trend throughout the IT industry to make computer systems more flexible and adaptable to changing business needs. IBM sells more than three times as much in SOA products and services as anyone else.”
Sandy is a frequent speaker at industry events sponsored by Gartner Group, IDC, Women in Technology (WITI), and Infoworld magazine and has the leading blog in the industry for SOA. Her professional associations include member and winner of the Best Speaker Award, the Marketing Focus Advisory Council; Board Member of the Grace Hopper Industry Advisory Committee; and membership in Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Inner Circle. She is a recipient of the 2005 AIT United Nations Member of the Year award for helping developing countries in the area of technology. She is an active member of Women in Technology and the Co-Lead IBM Partnership Executive at Duke University.
Sandy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard, and is fluent in eight programming languages. For more information, please visit Sandy’s blog at: http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/SOA_Off_the_Record
Foreword xiii
Part I: Start at the Beginning–The Business 1
Chapter 1: The Innovation Imperative 3
Chapter 2: What Is Flex-pon-sive*? 13
Chapter 3: Deconstructing Your Business: Component Business Model 23
Part II: A Flexible Business Requires Flexible IT 41
Chapter 4: SOA as the DNA of a Flex-pon-sive* and Innovative Company 43
Chapter 5: SOA Key Concepts 75
Chapter 6: SOA Governance and Service Lifecycle 105
Chapter 7: Three Business-Centric SOA Entry Points 135
Chapter 8: What about Web 2.0 and SOA? Are They Related? 179
Part III: How to Implement Flex-pon-sive* in Your Business 199
Chapter 9: The Top 10 Don’ts! 201
Chapter 10: Case Study: IBM 223
Chapter 11: Putting It All Together 243
Glossary 283
Index 291
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