Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Reducing Complexity with SOA

Tom Krotchko, Director Web Architecture, Amtrak May 16, 2007

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Only Obvious in Hindsight

Complexity increased at Amtrak
Technology Changes Business Changes

Increasing complexity ignored until it caused pain

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

The Symptoms Of Complexity

Increasing Costs and Effort Customer Behavior & Expectations Changes in Business Expectation Obsolescence of Core Technologies

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

What We Found
QuikTrak tickets.Amtrak.com BookIt! RMI Embedded HAS Speech XML over IP XAAPI AAPI HLLAPI/COMMS HLLAPI / Attachmate SNA Server Client 3270 via IP 3270 via DLC SNA Server 3270 via DLC TPF SNA Arrow Function Arrow Function Arrow Function Arrow Arrow Function Arrow Function 3270 via IPX 3270 via IP
Embedded

Etravel XML via http Java Servlet Engine

RailRes

STARS

Embedded

Embedded

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Rube Goldberg: Alive and Well

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

How did we get into this mess?

There was simply too much stuff! Without a roadmap of our own, we ended up supporting whatever a vendor insisted we had to have Business logic was recreated over and over

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Head Towards the Light

WWW/Socket Server Client Interface

Security

High level abstraction of h Arrow function Amtrak Structured Data

Business Logic

Gateway to other web content

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Integration
Standard Interface Centralized Security Consolidation of Business Logic Common Interface to Legacy Systems

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Lead to SOA
B2B Partners Government Partnerships New

XML Appliance (security & routing) Amtrak.com Self-Service Kiosk

webMethods Integration Server

Julie (voice) Call Center Active Projects Station Sales Station Signage

In Use

XAAPI (Screen To Structured)

Arrow (reservations & sales)

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

But Why?
A messaging layer was part of our roadmap Previous experiences with simple message layers showed us the advantages of standardization Web services had finally achieved a critical mass

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

An API to the Business

Think of the SOA as an API to describe your business Schema development is harder than most people think Work with existing standards whenever possible A good-enough industry standard API is better than a perfect proprietary API
Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Did we reduce complexity?

We didnt remove complexity, we moved it where it is easier to manage Tactical complexity was easier to fix Systemic complexity is taking a long time to fix, but has enterprise benefits Development is faster, cheaper, and reusable

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Dont Add Complexity

Interfaces are strategic Services by themselves add complexity Governance helps manage complexity, not reduce it Design your services the way you design a database Consistency is your friend
Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Partnership With the Business

Educate the business about your strategic technology direction Position the technology as a way to enable business process improvements Resist technical architectures from the business The SOA should mirror the business, not the technical implementation
Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

A Journey of a Thousand Miles

The first steps with an SOA will begin with a technical implementation SOA will be disruptive to both the business and technology The test of your plan will occur when the business moves in a direction you didnt anticipate

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks