It really is good to see vendors begin to implement many of the OASIS, and other standards into their products. As an example, take SPML (Services Provisioning Mark-up Language), the prevalent standard being used to undertake provisioning in Identity Management solutions. The normal SOA approach would be to choose a layered architecture and to integrate all the vendor products within the normal integration layer by exposing a number of small BPEL (Integration Layer) compositions, rather than use multiple APIs, middleware, virtual databases, etc. Whilst this is a good first step, the main benefit is realised when you use BPEL to also transport the SPML schema; for example, between an HRMS (Human Resource Management System) with an Identity Management application. Apart from not needing to invoke a single non-standard API or adapter, you have the added benefit of the vendor having actually implemented the standard into the product for you - getting us closer to a true plug and play environment (given comparable functionality, of course).
Read full entry...
