Lukas Auer

Managing an increased service heterogeneity in a converged enterprise infrastructure with SOA

The traditional service management techniques and frameworks are inadequate for handling new-generation integrated applications and cross-enterprise business processes and services. There is a need for management architecture that can provide real-time visibility and control from the application and data levels through the dynamic service and business process levels. The Service Delivery Platform (SDP) is the proper, but still not obvious, choice for such a management architecture. As yet, there is no standard definition for SDP or for its constituent components. In this paper, we identify both the current boundaries of SDP and the concepts importance. We classify and analyse the components and the relations between the elements of this management framework, and visualise the results of our analysis through the reference architecture. Through our representation of the service management framework, we also provide a rational view of the whole service delivery environment.

The Place and Value of SOA in Building 2.0-Generation Enterprise Unified vs. Ubiquitous Communication and Collaboration Platform

Based on an extensive examining of different industrial and research resources we have recognized that SOA is one of the most progressive IT concepts in the enterprise management. Besides, the rise of social networking in the enterprise, the adoption of Enterprise 2.0, and the use of mobile applications in business are influencing the enterprise SOA development. Thus, in this paper, we focus onto the evaluating the role and place of SOA in new generation of enterprise management paradigm, which highly relies onto the social collaboration tools. Namely, we investigate here integration challenges of main services delivery strategies. Also, we perform an analysis of SOA role in the enterprise social collaboration platform. Next, we define impact factors of social networking and social SOA onto corporate world including placement of a social collaboration layer in new enterprise architecture. And finally, additionally to SOA strategy, we introduce a syndication-oriented architecture concept, defined as a middleware for connecting applications to users, and explore its importance for enterprise collaboration platform.

An Approach to Extract the Business Value from SOA Services

Enterprises deploy SOA for the cost-effective flexibility and enhanced usage of legacy IT. But, the shift to SOA does not come easy and cheap. Building an effective SOA platform requires tight integration between new and existing product categories, and it may require large investments. Therefore, conventional investment valuation methods need to be combined with other modern techniques to reflect SOA’s long-term strategic investment nature, the inherent uncertainty and the managerial discretion. Some emerging value-based analytical methodologies have started to be developed extensively under the umbrella concept of Business Value Analysis (BVA). However, BVA is not yet a wholly integrated and the theoretical foundation for it needs to be strengthened. Thus, in this paper, we apply modified CVP/BEP method developed under the BVA umbrella for the evaluation of SOA projects, in particular for the services reuse.

Exploratory case study research on SOA investment decision processes in austria

Aligning information systems to financial key performance indicators and measure its returns has become one of the most important topics over the last years. However, despite the growing investments of many corporations into IT in general, an increasing number of questions and concerns have been arising to the effectiveness of these investments and their payoffs. Hence, an evaluation of an enterprises IT architecture, as a part of IT investments, has been increasing its role throughout organizations worldwide. Numerous conceptual studies and tools to predict the business value of IT/SOA investment portfolios are being offered; nevertheless most of them substantially lack accuracy. For this purpose, we empirically investigate the application of SOA investment criteria in large Austrian corporations, which will be realized through a multiple case study collection reflecting current investment strategies and measurements.

SOA as an Effective Tool for the Flexible Management of Increased Service Heterogeneity in Converged Enterprise Networks

Traditional service management techniques and frameworks are inadequate to handle new generation integrated applications and cross-enterprise business processes and services. Thus, there emerges a call for a management architecture that can provide the real-time visibility and control from the application and data level through the dynamic service and business process. The service delivery platform (SDP), a telco-version of SOA, is proper, but still not obvious. There is no standard definition for the term or the components that constitute an SDP. In this paper we intend to identify current boundaries of SDP as well as the importance of the concept. We classify and analyze the components and relations between the elements of this management framework. We visualize the results of our analysis through the reference architecture. And, in our representation of the service management framework we provide a rational view of the whole service delivery environment.

SOI Framework for the Efficient Management of Complex Resource-Intensive Applications on Constrained Devices

Contemporary mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are the fastest-growing local mobile/wireless service providers. They have been achieving such significant growth by providing highly-adaptable, personalized services. The ability to change their offerings to go with individual end-users’ needs is the key to the continued success. Consequently, MVNOs require a highly-scalable hardware and software infrastructure to drive their customer portals. In addition, costs must be kept to an exposed minimum as they operate in a very competitive market. The challenge to face is how to improve delivery of numerous new services, which are extremely customizable, while decreasing inside IT costs. Thus, we address in this paper an open issue - what kind of infrastructure an enterprise needs to succeed in such a competitive service provisioning marketplace. Precisely, we examine and evaluate the case of an architectural model that allows mobile appliances to use composite services and subsequently enables the execution of complex and resource-intensive applications on constrained devices.

Conceptual framework for services creation/development environment in telecom domain

The telecom service providers (fixed and mobile) understand that they must bring in new smart services in order to attract new customers, retain existing ones and increase revenue. The challenges and goals for doing so are as follows: determining which services are needed; introducing more services in a faster manner and at lower costs; delivering innovative services in a way that allows existing users to migrate smoothly to new ones. These goals could not be achieved with traditional closed and proprietary network infrastructure, as the vendor lock-in involved in that infrastructure results in limited scope of services, and dependency on old business models. New services require a much greater degree of system flexibility, performance and scalability, as well as open standards. Next Generation Network (NGN) provide the means for enabling agile service creation capabilities that facilitate better user experiences by integrating both new and legacy services across any access. However, NGNs involve complex structures even for simple services as they consist of a large number of building blocks and necessitate hierarchical models with a lot of parallel subsystems. Thus, particular attention has to be paid to understanding and modelling the performance of these systems. The rationale of this paper lies in developing a design and engineering methodology (based on a mathematical foundation) that addresses the service creation aspects for those fields in which traditional approaches will not work for NGNs.

Business value assessment of services re-use on SOA using appropriate methodologies, metrics and models

The main advantage of service re-use for the companies includes retaining a competitive advantage. The expectation of greater service re-use is one of the core benefits of a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Besides the top drivers for SOA adoption include business flexibility, simplification and speed of integration. So, in order to maximise the intended benefits of SOA implementation, organisations need to develop a well-articulated SOA quality strategy to promote trust and re-use. However, the shift to this strategy does not come easy and cheap. Building an effective SOA platform requires tight integration between new and existing product categories, and it may require large investments. The same applies for developing re-usable services. For this reason, conventional investment valuation methods need to be combined with other modern techniques to reflect service re-use’s long-term strategic investment nature, the inherent uncertainty and the managerial discretion. Many value-based analytical methodologies have started to be developed. Thus, in this paper, we explain the role of SOA for services re-use and focus on the methodologies, metrics and models that are able to measure the business value of service re-use.

Service-oriented mobility architecture provides highly-configurable wireless services

We concentrate in this paper on a SOI model and its interactions with local mobile devices while accessing the services on SOA-WSD. We also attempt to build an efficient framework that integrates the mobility of resource-limited devices (e.g. handhelds, cellular phones) with the processing power of the SOA-WSD platform.

Assessment of business value from services re-use on SOA-based e-business platform

The top drivers for SOA adoption include the expectation of greater reuse in existing and newly-built Web services, business flexibility, simplification and speed of integration. So, in order to maximize the intended benefits of service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementation, organizations need to develop a well-articulated SOA quality strategy to promote trust and reuse. However, the shift to this strategy does not come easy and cheap. Building an effective SOA platform requires tight integration between new and existing product categories, and it may require large investments. For this reason, conventional investment valuation methods need to be combined with other modern techniques to reflect SOAs long-term strategic investment nature, the inherent uncertainty and the managerial discretion. Some emerging value-based analytical methodologies have started to be developed extensively under the umbrella concept of Business Value Analysis (BVA). Thus, in this paper, we apply modified CVP/BEP method developed under the BVA umbrella for the evaluation of SOA projects, in particular for the services reuse related.