SOA Reference Architecture

Recently the Open Group, which is an 300 member industry consortia devoted to the establishment of open standards, developed what they term as a SOA Reference Architecture. It’s a white paper that describes a blueprint for creating and/or evaluating a SOA architecture. I highly recommend it, and some of the things it touches upon are:

• Principles and benefits of SOA.
• 9 Conceptual Layers of SOA architecture, such as the role of service components, governance, business processes etc.
• Best practices for integrating middleware such as ESBs.

It’s an excellent document, and well worth reading the 30 or so pages.