Paul Krill
Editor at Large

IBM expands SOA wares

news
Feb 26, 20072 mins

IBM on Monday plans to announce another expansion of its SOA software and services.

With Monday’s unveiling, the company believes it is further enabling organizations to more easily embed integration capabilities within SOA-driven processes.

Featured as part of the announcement is IBM Service Oriented Modeling and Architecture (SOMA) Version 3, developed by IBM Global Business Services as an approach to implementing a long-term plan to move to SOA. The new version supports IBM’s Information as a Service concept, which is a strategy to access information independent of the source and convert it into a specific business service.

SOMA offers a blueprint for incorporating data integration and master data management within an SOA, with models that help align an architecture with business goals.

Also to be announced is WebSphere Information Analyzer, which is a new module for the IBM Information Server that helps eliminate the risk of reusing bad data. Information Analyzer profiles data and understands the quality and content of data sources while creating a metadata map of source systems, IBM said. Information Server is an IBM data integration software package.

New capabilities in IBM Information Server, meanwhile, complement IBM WebSphere Process Server to enable tighter integration between information and business processes. These services activities within Process Server expose data integration tasks from IBM Information Server so they can support capabilities within business processes. Users can browse services and view and reuse metadata and ensure efficient interaction between Web services and data integration tasks, according to IBM.

IBM also will announce an extension to Rational Data Architect to help provide more value from IBM industry-specific data models. The Enterprise Model Extender helps organizations in banking, financial markets, insurance and other industries to get more value out of IBM Industry Data Models.

IBM has had a series of programs and products targeting SOA deployments. In October, IBM grew its SOA efforts with programs, services and partner incentives that included the development of SOA Specialty Wikis for vertical industries. Last March, the company launched efforts to bring small and midsized businesses into the SOA fold.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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