A container model for applications of the future

Judith Hurwitz, president and CEO of Hurwitz & Associates, says companies planning for service oriented architectures haven't come to terms with how it changes the nature of application development. In a recent article on IT-Director.com, Hurwitz said that after talking with a CIO abouthis SOAimplementation plans, these questions emerged:

"What is the container? Into what do you put this set of linked business services? It isn't simply a piece of code, and it isn't a traditional application with a beginning, middle and an end; so, what is it? Does it simply float in space?"

There is no clear answer. So she advocates for the creation ofa container model, which servesas a composite entity, or a home for all the SOA bits:

Containers can be linked together with a visualization of what it means to link two business containers together. In effect, I am describing how applications of the future will be designed. This increased level of visualization will make the dream of component architectures and service oriented architectures come true: first, developers will create modular business services; then, business management will take the right services, apply the right business policies to these services, and then link them together to make the business work.

Vendors are already addressing the visbility issue. SOA Software just introduced a registry-based Web services dashboard that provides real-time alerts and visual indicators that tie together management, registry, reliability, and security for Web services and SOA deployment...