The Open Group Publishes New Standards for SOA and Cloud
On the 17th of January 2012 The Open Group released two new vendor-neutral, industry standards that enable businesses to effectively integrate fundamental elements of SOA and Cloud Computing into an Enterprise Architecture. The new standards are: SOA Reference Architecture (SOA RA) and the Service-Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure Framework (SOCCI). Additionally, The Open Group has released updates to The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM), which has now been ratified as an ISO and IEC (ISO/IEC 166880) International Standard.
The SOA Reference Architecture (SOA RA) The Open Group SOA RA is an industry standard reference architecture or blueprint for the development and evaluation of SOA solutions. The standard provides a common language and approach for creating SOA solutions that meet different organizational needs and bridge the gap between business and IT. The architecture provides a vendor-neutral approach to SOA that allows users, vendors and customers across lines of business to reduce misunderstandings through shared terminology, thus eliminating extra efforts when mapping architectural concepts across vendors.
Service-Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure Framework (SOCCI) SOCCI is the industry’s first Cloud Standard for enterprises that wish to provide infrastructure as a service in the Cloud and SOA. SOCCI is an enabling framework of service-oriented components for infrastructure that are provided as a service in SOA solutions and the cloud. The standard details a set of common SOCCI elements and management building blocks for organizations to consider and identifies the synergies that can be realized through cohesive application of SOA and cloud-based principles. Using SOCCI, organizations can incorporate Cloud-based resources and services into their infrastructure for increased agility and scale, and lower maintenance costs.
The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM) OSIMM allows consultants and IT practitioners to assess an organization’s readiness and maturity level for adopting services in SOA solutions. By aligning business goals and assessing associated SOA services, IT practitioners can create a detailed roadmap for integrating services for SOA and Cloud Computing solutions into enterprises. These new standards will be discussed at the January EA Forum. Go to www.opengroup.co.za/tog/ea-forum for details.
