Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Glen Daniels

Progress Software

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation2

DataXtend Data Integration

EasyAskNatural Language Search and Query

DataDirectData Connectivity

ObjectStore

OpenEdge

Apama

Actional

Shadow

Sonic

Object Data Management

Business Application Platform

Event Processing

Enterprise Service Bus

SOA & Web Services Management

Mainframe Integration

Application Platforms

Data Infrastructure

Services Infrastructure

First model-driven semantic data integration

First unified mainframe integration platform

Market leading ESB

Market leading event processing platform

First and leading natural language query

Market leader in data connectivity

Integrated platform optimized for business

Leading enterprise-class SOA management

Market leading object database

Progress Software

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation3

A Little About Sonic

We’re all about Integration• Message-centric (async)

• Highly distributed

• Legacy / Mainframe

• Data adaptation

• Orchestration

“Connect everything… achieve anything”

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation4

Different Strokes

We live in a multi-protocol world• JMS, FTP, UDP, Jabber, etc.

Not always necessary to switch…• Services rarely move from one to another

…but necessary to adapt!• You never know who you might be talking to

• Data formats, protocols, semantics

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation5

External or Internal?

Sometimes integrating units within the same company can be “external”• Regulatory compliance requires IT diffs

• Organizational opacity

Bringing in a new acquisition can make formerly disparate systems “internal”.• Newly shared security domains, registries, etc

Shared models can really help here• WSDL, Bindings

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation6

The Promise

Web Services as common “glue” for talking to a variety of platforms

Wire-level interoperability to avoid the “many adapters” issue

A composible set of specs which smoothly take you from simple to richly-featured

Distributed extensibility and evolution Interop… also WRT Skills and Tools

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation7

The Reality

Lack of community architectural consistency• No standard for how to write/use extensions

• No real framework for bindings with various capabilities

Interoperability problems• Whither Soapbuilders/WS-I?

Perception as bloated, vendor-controlled

…and some great successes too

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation8

URIs

URI == Endpoint?• Metadata about resources is critical

– Content-type is NOT enough

• …but you shouldn’t require EPRs to get it

Single URI -> single resource• Need stronger curb on use of RefPs

• Policy, Sem Web assertions, etc.

Benefits of URIs are well-understood, let’s not throw them out

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation9

Bindings

We love bindings!• Design a service in the abstract (types,

operations)

• Bind to particular formats, policies, addresses

Great for managing change• Evolution

• Apply policies

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation10

A Common View : Benefits

You get a lot from a common service model• Manageability / governance

• Registries

• Interoperability

• Tooling (codegen, orchestration)

• Composibility (intermediaries/mediation)

Is WSDL it?

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation11

We’re Not Highlanders

“There can be only one” – NOT!

There is a place for WS next to the Web

Can we get to a place where enterprise “ility-enabled” apps, over a variety of underlying protocols, gain from what we’ve learned from the Web?• URIs, Proxies, Uniform IF

© 2006 Progress Software Corporation12

So Where Do We Go From Here?

Collect “enterprisey” use cases• Build taxonomy and best practices• Demonstrate the same story with WS and

REST?• Picking the right tool for the right job

Push harder for architectural coherence• EPRs/URIs – please let’s get the word out• Is “composibility” a myth?• Versioning

Interop work?