SOA & SaaS
Twins of the new revolution
SOA (Service Orientated Architecture) and SaaS (Software as a
restricted to one or two updates per
Service) are two fundamental pillars of a revolution in application
year. Also the feedback from the
customer about problems or new
delivery that started a few years ago but is now building up
requirements can take ages.”
a ‘head of steam’ to a point that it will change forever our
“In the SaaS business model this
perceptions of what a software application does and the way we
whole development, testing and
purchase and interact with it.
feedback model is dramatically
reduced. Users can feed back almost
instantaneously and development and
T
he difference between the two easily. Development times come down delivery is rapid using the SOA model.”
is that SOA defines a new way from years to months and even weeks. “The user can then use the new
of building software applications Modifications and new releases can features immediately.”
around service modules such that be done much simpler as it is only This rapid development and
applications are bolted together from individual modules that need to be feedback model is a great bonus but
these different service modules. altered and tested, not the whole also a challenge to the ISV. As the word
SaaS on the other hand defines how software application. service implies the ISV is no longer
these applications are delivered to the When SOA is combined with SaaS supplying a product but a service.
individual or company based on a ‘pay then rapid innovation is the result. If the service is not good they
as you go’ model. Melinda Mathews explains, “SaaS can change supplier rapidly. There
The reason that these two models differs from traditional business is no capital expenditure or leasing
are so different from the traditional solutions in that it is delivered in a arrangement to lock them in. They are
software application model is based hosted model rather than installed no longer locked to a particular supplier.
around the word ‘service’. on site. The advantage of the hosted However it has been shown time
Melinda Matthews, Director ISV model is that the customer only pays and again that people value service
and Developer Relations EMEA at IBM for what they use and they always much more than products so if the
explains, “hW en we define the word have the latest version of the product.” SaaS application is delivered properly
service in context of SOA and SaaS “The development, testing and and service levels are maintained,
what we mean is that a ‘service’ is a implementation cycle in the old customer loyalty is much stronger.
repeatable business task. Think of this in model is long and cumbersome often Although SOA and SaaS have been
terms of ‘open a new account’ or ‘check
customer credit’ in an application.”
“Business processes are then a
series of services snapped together like
building blocks. SOA is an architectural
style that makes this all possible.”
“It is easier to understand if you don’t
think about software and IT and instead
think about what a company does on
a day to day basis and break those
business processes up into repeatable
business tasks or components.”
“SOA is just an architectural style
that supports integrating the client’s
business as linked services. SOA
makes it easy to snap together services
into a business process just like
snapping together building blocks into
a structure.”
The SOA architecture allows ISVs
to design and construct applications
rapidly and modify and update them
40 8020 EUROPA JUNE 2008
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