SOA Baby Steps Tom Barton University of Chicago

U Chicago & SOA No Big App dropping it on us, yet Wanna be prepared though Web Services seems like a good approach to solving some problems – Loose coupling: interfaces are at high enough level to enable client & server technologies to evolve independently – Language neutral – Range of integration: batch to latest application designs Early experiences with WS & Identity Management – Even a trivial SOA, with just 1 S, can be powerful 9/25/20082

WS & Identity Management Identifier translation – Translate among ChicagoID, SSN, NetID, hospital employeeID, alumID, studentID, ISO, (RFID) – Facilitate conversion from SSN to ChicagoID in Systems of Record and downstream systems – Client: CLI to add/translate identifiers in batch flows in transit Account management – Register usernames in multiple namespaces – Avoid assigning conflicting usernames – Client: VBscript to coordinate UC Hospital’s account management with rest of UC’s 9/25/20083

Net of early experience Service contract: WS interfaces package high level functions and objects – Independent from underlying relational structure and implementing code Loose coupling Good division of labor In-memory RDBMS to optimize batch performance 9/25/20084

Data Services Data flow problems – Long history of point-point custom batch interfaces – Hard to steward – Hard to upgrade SoRs – Hard to get new flows – Narrow data query service led to even more data copying Strategy: data delivery as a service – Combination of reporting & WS capabilities – Business Intelligence Services is front office – Data Stewardship program for policy and implementation support 9/25/20085

Services of Record (Allstate) 9/25/20086

Steps Towards Our First SOA Look for cowpaths in institutional data Choose WS’s to reinforce a common data model across systems Technology choices – Infrastructure: servlet platform, ESB – Development framework Organizational choices – Providers, Consumers, Implementers, Policy- setters 9/25/20087

Designing Grouper’s WS Interfaces RESTSOAP Lite12 Heavy34 It takes 4 WS interface styles to please enough Grouper adopters How many styles will you need for your Web Services? 9/25/20088

Securing Grouper WS WS adds a tier to your environment What needs will you have, and what options available, for securing your WS implementations? How distributed will your WS clients be? What principals should act in the back-end? Are some WS’s more like a web application, others more like a traditional interface? Security options ContainerWS-SecurityIP addressSystem 9/25/20089