Flashline highlights the 'A` in SOA

Flashline, the registry/repository provider for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and software reuse, has published a freely available Web cast on best practices for winning at SOA by emphasising architecture, titled: "Putting the `A` in SOA".

As companies make the transformation to SOA, too many organisations are focusing their efforts on Web services alone, without incorporating the overall enterprise architecture and governance.

Unfortunately, this approach can increase complexity and cause more problems than it solves, making it impossible to deliver on the full promises of SOA. This Web cast illustrates the importance of architecture in the implementation of SOA, and offers best practices to get an SOA off to the right start, keep it on track and measure the business value, Biz.yahoo.com reports.

India is hosting a two-day enterprise software architecture summit on 9 and 10 May, Ndtvprofit.com reports.

Software architecture has become a critical element for realising practical vision of the IT system for Fortune 2000 companies. In India only 1% to 2% of software professionals are architects. Short supply of architects is due to the traditionally service-oriented nature of the Indian software industry. The summit will focus on software architecture as a specialised field as it is very distinct from software engineering, programming and project management.

Among the focus areas will be: understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks, model driven architecture, component-based product line and SOA, which are key to reducing IT costs, ensuring system longevity and enhancing productivity.

Enterprise architecture is having a profound and pervasive impact on the way enterprises deal with IT. This impact is having a more significant effect than any other discipline in software history, and it`s paving the way for the maturity of IT as an industry, Allafrica.com reports.

Even amid an economic downturn, or possibly because of it, medium-sized and large companies are investing in enterprise architecture to support their enterprise-wide cost reduction or their latest IT or business initiatives.

Enterprise architecture is enabling a small but growing number of enterprises to manage IT as a business. This means the ability to explicitly drive strategic decisions with regard to IT, based on facts or even metrics; and to align business and IT strategy. It is also to make financial, managerial, and architecturally sound decisions about large and small initiatives, programmes, and individual projects.