Juergen Kress

Best Practices for Knowledge Workers describes Adaptive Case Management (ACM) in the current era of digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent BPMS and BPM Everywhere.

Best Practices for Knowledge Workers describes ACM in the current era of digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent BPMS and BPM Everywhere. You will learn how support of adaptive, data-driven processes empowers knowledge workers to know in… Show more

Best Practices for Knowledge Workers describes Adaptive Case Management (ACM) in the current era of digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent BPMS and BPM Everywhere.

Best Practices for Knowledge Workers describes ACM in the current era of digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent BPMS and BPM Everywhere. You will learn how support of adaptive, data-driven processes empowers knowledge workers to know in real-time what is happening at the edge points, and to take actions through the combination of rule-driven guidance and their own know-how. It is not a traditionally-automated system but intelligent automation, where technology doesn’t replace human decision-making but extends the reach of the knowledge worker; making IoT data actionable. Show less

The SOA Magazine VI edition focuses on a summary from Oracle OpenWorld 2015. The conference market an important point for Oracle as all the Oracle PaaS services are in production, more are announced and integration starts. Let us start from the beginning of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) journey for Oracle; at last year’s OpenWorld Oracle announced several PaaS services in advance of availability. Based on Java Cloud Service, which is available for more than a year, Oracle grow the portfolio… Show more

The SOA Magazine VI edition focuses on a summary from Oracle OpenWorld 2015. The conference market an important point for Oracle as all the Oracle PaaS services are in production, more are announced and integration starts. Let us start from the beginning of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) journey for Oracle; at last year’s OpenWorld Oracle announced several PaaS services in advance of availability. Based on Java Cloud Service, which is available for more than a year, Oracle grow the portfolio within the last 12 months. With the majority in the PaaS service, which became wildly available, the European Partners are leading the adoption to the cloud.

Let’s take a look why, with more 50% of the global specialized partners are based in Europe, it is easy for them to join the journey. Oracle offers the same middleware software on-premises as on the cloud. This enables customers and partners to adopt easy and to secure investments. Over the last 12 months, our partners have proven successful cloud adoption by building proof of concepts, projects and showcasing our PaaS service. Customer can choose from a variety of cloud service offerings and first applications at the Oracle Cloud Marketplace for example the Amis Cloud Activator Service. Oracle crossed successful the PaaS Cloud Chasm.

What is the next step in our joint cloud journey? During Oracle OpenWorld 2015 the keynotes focused on the integrated hybrid cloud. Integrated with Developer Cloud Service and also within each other. A great example is the HCL predictive maintenance showcase. The use case includes the complete flow from fault recognition, gather and diagnose information, repair and settle and schedule preventive maintenance. The whole show case was build on the Oracle PaaS Platform including IoT, Integration, Process and Mobile Cloud Service. In the upcoming months integration between cloud services will be much tighter including hybrid scenarios.
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The SOA Magazine V edition focuses on Cloud Computing. More precisely, it highlights Platform as a Service (PaaS). Oracle is in process to launch three new PaaS Cloud Services: Process Cloud Service (PCS), Integration Cloud Service (ICS), and Java Cloud Service (JCS). JCS is the underlying foundation and enables you to build, deploy and run Java Applications. With ICS, partners and customers can build integrations between Applications. For example, an integration between Eloqua marketing and… Show more

The SOA Magazine V edition focuses on Cloud Computing. More precisely, it highlights Platform as a Service (PaaS). Oracle is in process to launch three new PaaS Cloud Services: Process Cloud Service (PCS), Integration Cloud Service (ICS), and Java Cloud Service (JCS). JCS is the underlying foundation and enables you to build, deploy and run Java Applications. With ICS, partners and customers can build integrations between Applications. For example, an integration between Eloqua marketing and Salesforce CRM including an on-premises SAP system. PCS is the platform to build and execute BPMN process in the Cloud. Oracle’s key unique selling point is that the same software is available as on PaaS as on-premises. For example, you can start building your process in PCS export your application and run it on Oracle BPM Suite on-premises in a private Cloud. This enables customers to start and try a service in PaaS and, if required, move it to a data center of their choice.



The second major trend in IT besides Cloud Computing is Mobile. In this Magazine edition, Luca Jellema published an Tutorial to build a Flight application including mobile integration and application. This application is a great example for the complete Red Stack and we want to encourage your to make use of it! It includes all key components from the underlying WebLogic Server, SOA Suite and Service Bus for IT driven integration and BPM Suite for human based processes up to mobile integration with REST. With this application you will learn to utilize the stack and to gain productivity. Show less

the SOA Magazine IV edition focuses on Industrial SOA articles which showcase that SOA is much more than a web service. Rolando Carrasco and Arturo Viveros showcase in their SOA Myth Busters article the evolution of the SOA Suite towards a complete platform over the last 10 years. An industrial SOA platform contains also API management to secure web services, as well b2b as a trading hub between external partners.

What is the use case for Business Process Management versus Services… Show more

the SOA Magazine IV edition focuses on Industrial SOA articles which showcase that SOA is much more than a web service. Rolando Carrasco and Arturo Viveros showcase in their SOA Myth Busters article the evolution of the SOA Suite towards a complete platform over the last 10 years. An industrial SOA platform contains also API management to secure web services, as well b2b as a trading hub between external partners.

What is the use case for Business Process Management versus Services Oriented Architecture. SOA is mainly used for data mediation and process orchestration between different IT systems. BPM is focused on automation on human based processes like an employee holiday request. Key is to re-use the SOA web services for your BPM deployment. In our holiday request example we can re-use a web service from the HR system which informs the employee of the available holidays. In this magazine edition you learn on the BPM Side more about Gateways and how Link Consulting is using a generator to create Human tasks. Thanks to Mark Foster who highlights in his article 10 best practices for SOA Suite and BPM Suite a must read! Show less

What is ACM?
Adaptive Case Management is ultimately about allowing knowledge workers to work the way that they want to work and to provide them with the tools and information they need to do so effectively.

The SOA Magazine III edition focuses on the new release of Oracle SOA Suite 12c. The “c2” stands for Cloud & Consolidation. Many customers face the challenge to deliver more IT value for their business. Cloud solutions are very attractive for business. SOA is the foundation for a successful road to cloud computing. To invest & grow companies needs to consolidate existing solutions. Many customers not only run multiple instances of integration products, they also run multiple solutions from… Show more

The SOA Magazine III edition focuses on the new release of Oracle SOA Suite 12c. The “c2” stands for Cloud & Consolidation. Many customers face the challenge to deliver more IT value for their business. Cloud solutions are very attractive for business. SOA is the foundation for a successful road to cloud computing. To invest & grow companies needs to consolidate existing solutions. Many customers not only run multiple instances of integration products, they also run multiple solutions from multiple vendors. Analyst companies like Gartner report since years that 8 out of 10 dollar of IT investment is “dead money”. It’s time to consolidate your systems into one private cloud platform which also integrates your new public cloud solutions! Business becomes “digital” and middleware plays a key role.

IT is capable of building complex systems. With Service Oriented Architecture IT systems become flexible and integrated. With Business Process Management structured processes could be automated. Today IT needs to support business in a global competitive economy by flexible adaptive solutions. Therefore a new age of the knowledge worker, that makes his decision based on IT support, rises. Adaptive case management (ACM) is the solution which supports knowledge workers in their decision for unstructured processes. With ACM based solutions knowledge workers can make better decisions on core company values, which result in more successful companies in a competitive global environment. In this edition we highlight two ACM articles. OMG defined a suggestion for a notation for ACM, the “Case Management Model and Notation” (CMMN). Jessica Ray gives an introduction for CMMN modelling. In the second article Leon Smiers describes who the re-landscaping with case management. Show less

Innovative service technologies are becoming valuable assets for businesses that need to stay competitive in the face of increasing globalization and market complexity. While computer processing power is becoming faster and cheaper, search engines, instant messaging, and social media channels are generating floods of information that escalate demands for consumable and accessible data.

As the world's economies engage one another through offshoring, outsourcing, and supply chaining… Show more

Innovative service technologies are becoming valuable assets for businesses that need to stay competitive in the face of increasing globalization and market complexity. While computer processing power is becoming faster and cheaper, search engines, instant messaging, and social media channels are generating floods of information that escalate demands for consumable and accessible data.

As the world's economies engage one another through offshoring, outsourcing, and supply chaining, localization is required to accommodate different currencies and languages. Globalization, recession, invention, and communication are some of the driving forces behind a next generation of technologies and practices that revolve around software programs designed in accordance with the paradigm of service-orientation. Such programs, referred to as "services," are expected to do more for less with greater efficiency in order to meet business challenges head-on.

We have reached a stage in the evolution of service-oriented computing where modern service technology innovation is building upon mature service platforms at the same time that proven delivery techniques and design patterns are building upon an established service-orientation paradigm. These developments have made it possible to create service-oriented solutions of unprecedented sophistication. Show less

Effizienzsteigerung durch Prozessautomatisierung: ein Anspruch, der sich durch die Geschichte zieht – durch Henry Ford geprägt und eindrucksvoll in der industriellen Fertigung schon umgesetzt – goldrichtig für den „Production Worker“. Heute aber schreien die Menschen vor ihren Bildschirmen auf, wenn sie durch ein zu starres Prozesskorsett in immer gleiche Aufgabenlisten und Maskenflüsse gezwungen werden, die innovatives und situationsadäquates Handeln erschweren oder gar ganz verhindern.

Welcome to the second edition of the SOA Magazine by SOA Community. With the second edition of the SOA Magazine we continue to update you around Service Technology Architecture (SOA) on a regular base. The newsletter is for both customers and partners who are active in the SOA space. The content includes articles for IT decision makers, architects and developers. The goal of the newsletter is to update you on the latest SOA technologies, market studies, trainings & certifications and… Show more

Welcome to the second edition of the SOA Magazine by SOA Community. With the second edition of the SOA Magazine we continue to update you around Service Technology Architecture (SOA) on a regular base. The newsletter is for both customers and partners who are active in the SOA space. The content includes articles for IT decision makers, architects and developers. The goal of the newsletter is to update you on the latest SOA technologies, market studies, trainings & certifications and conferences. We publish the newsletter in English and some articles will be in Portuguese specially for the Brazilian marketing, thanks to Ricardo Puttini and his team. Contribution is open for everybody! We want to publish your content! Like case studies, best practice, technical examples and solutions and conferences. Show less

Opinions vary on the relationship between service oriented architecture and cloud computing. Some say SOA is essential to the cloud. Others say cloud is entirely possible without SOA. In this three-part program three members of the Masons of SOA, the group behind the Industrial SOA article series, offer their insight into the issue.

Cloud Computing Hype

Why is everyone talking about cloud computing? Drawn-out, expensive IT projects that are planned and implemented without any benefits for the business stakeholders are commonplace. In contrast, cloud computing offers business users the chance to immediately implement services with usage-based billing that are tailored to their requirements, often without the need to consult with the IT department.

However, aspects like security, architecture, availability, and… Show more

Cloud Computing Hype

Why is everyone talking about cloud computing? Drawn-out, expensive IT projects that are planned and implemented without any benefits for the business stakeholders are commonplace. In contrast, cloud computing offers business users the chance to immediately implement services with usage-based billing that are tailored to their requirements, often without the need to consult with the IT department.

However, aspects like security, architecture, availability, and standards are often not evaluated. Cloud consumers find themselves at the mercy of the cloud provider. Scenarios that require changing cloud providers after a cloud provider goes bankrupt, and the associated moving of data and/or applications, have not yet been sufficiently tested. Business continuity should play a key role from the start of a cloud evaluation process.

One of the greatest challenges here is the integration of existing data and systems into the cloud solution. Without integration spanning between clouds and on-premise systems, processes can only be executed in isolation, leading to cloud-specific silos of isolated solutions. Important information for users is not available across processes and systems. Problems that would have occurred in the company's internal IT are now shifted to the cloud provider. To prevent "legacy clouds" or solutions that are hard to maintain, it is important to manage the entire architecture proactively and, in particular, the integration into the cloud. Even if cloud providers want us to believe otherwise, not every aspect of IT can be outsourced to cloud solutions! Show less

Business Process Management is a management discipline that thrives to improve process performance. If done right, BPM leads to appealing, user-friendly processes that provide information about productivity, that measure performance and that illustrate the potential for improvement while indicating the exact location in the overall process that potentially benefits from one of various process optimization strategies.

"You will waste your investment in SOA unless you have enterprise information that SOA can exploit."

– Gartner

This quote from Gartner, Inc. describes the relationship between service-oriented architecture (SOA) and master data management (MDM) very vividly. An essential principle behind SOA is the reuse of components and the flexibility of using these components to support new functionalities or processes. MDM provides universal components (or services) for consistent data… Show more

"You will waste your investment in SOA unless you have enterprise information that SOA can exploit."

– Gartner

This quote from Gartner, Inc. describes the relationship between service-oriented architecture (SOA) and master data management (MDM) very vividly. An essential principle behind SOA is the reuse of components and the flexibility of using these components to support new functionalities or processes. MDM provides universal components (or services) for consistent data maintenance and distribution. Here the architecture concepts and principles of SOA run into MDM.

This article begins by giving a brief motive for using MDM and a conceptualization. It will then go on to present typical variants for possible MDM architecture concepts, and illustrate the interplay of MDM and SOA with reference to the architecture pattern. Show less

Welcome to the first edition of the SOA Magazine by SOA Community. With the SOA Magazine we will update you around Service Technology Architecture (SOA) on a regular base. The newsletter is for both customers and partners who are active in the SOA space. The content includes articles for IT decision makers, architects and developers. The goal of the newsletter is to update you on the latest SOA technologies, market studies, trainings & certifications and conferences. We publish the newsletter… Show more

Welcome to the first edition of the SOA Magazine by SOA Community. With the SOA Magazine we will update you around Service Technology Architecture (SOA) on a regular base. The newsletter is for both customers and partners who are active in the SOA space. The content includes articles for IT decision makers, architects and developers. The goal of the newsletter is to update you on the latest SOA technologies, market studies, trainings & certifications and conferences. We publish the newsletter in English and some articles will be in Portuguese specially for the Brazilian marketing, thanks to Ricardo Puttini and his team. Contribution is open for everybody! We want to publish your content! Like case studies, best practice, technical examples and solutions and conferences. Show less

Abstract: If we consider real companies and their business transactions, we see that the real world is not really service-driven at all, but much more event-driven. A new customer is created in the system, a new car reservation is made, a vehicle is returned or needs to be taken to the shop. All of these "functions" can be supported by services, but often also by precisely defined process chains.

However, complex business processes can rarely be automated "in one piece," as the real… Show more

Abstract: If we consider real companies and their business transactions, we see that the real world is not really service-driven at all, but much more event-driven. A new customer is created in the system, a new car reservation is made, a vehicle is returned or needs to be taken to the shop. All of these "functions" can be supported by services, but often also by precisely defined process chains.

However, complex business processes can rarely be automated "in one piece," as the real exceptions and dependencies of diverse business processes are highly dynamic. That brings us to the point where the concept of "event" becomes useful in our architectures. In this article, we therefore want to shine light on event-driven architectures and tie them into our current argumentation chains in SOA. Show less

Abstract: Any place, any time: the old promise from the dotcom age has never been more relevant. With the release of the iPhone, Apple set off a huge amount of hype. Many people now have a laptop with broadband Internet connection and/or WLAN or UMTS Internet access. Yet these devices are still too large, too awkward, and take too long to boot up to be usable at any time. On the other hand, almost everyone has a smartphone these days, making them more mobile than ever in today's economy.

This podcast features industry expert Jürgen Kress. Jürgen is currently working as a middleware expert at Oracle EMEA Alliances and Channels, and is a member of a number of Web communities, including Oracle's Middleware Partner Community. This community is considered to be one of the most successful and active communities within Oracle. Jürgen has also been an active participant of the Service Technology Symposium series over the years and has frequently acted as program committee member and… Show more

This podcast features industry expert Jürgen Kress. Jürgen is currently working as a middleware expert at Oracle EMEA Alliances and Channels, and is a member of a number of Web communities, including Oracle's Middleware Partner Community. This community is considered to be one of the most successful and active communities within Oracle. Jürgen has also been an active participant of the Service Technology Symposium series over the years and has frequently acted as program committee member and Symposium speaker. After years of valued involvement, Jürgen will be acting as the conference chair for this year's Symposium in December! Tune in now to gain some valuable insight from Jürgen himself. Show less

The interaction between user-interfaces and services in an SOA is an often-neglected topic. This article focuses on the particular challenges that need to be overcome when creating user-interfaces while entire process chains have to be called and interacted with. After outlining some general architectural considerations, we will describe a practical application of Thomas Erl's UI Mediator pattern that will be accompanied by our own technical experience.

Some of the most important SOA design patterns that we have successfully applied in projects will be described in this article. These include the Compensation pattern and the UI mediator pattern, the Common Data Format pattern and the Data Access pattern. All of these patterns are included in Thomas Erl's book, "SOA Design Patterns" [REF-1], and are presented here in detail, together with our practical experiences. We begin our "best of" SOA pattern collection with the Compensation… Show more

Some of the most important SOA design patterns that we have successfully applied in projects will be described in this article. These include the Compensation pattern and the UI mediator pattern, the Common Data Format pattern and the Data Access pattern. All of these patterns are included in Thomas Erl's book, "SOA Design Patterns" [REF-1], and are presented here in detail, together with our practical experiences. We begin our "best of" SOA pattern collection with the Compensation pattern

Numerous security standards have been created in order to realize these comprehensive security requirements. These include WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Trust, XML Encryption, XKMS, XML Signature, WS-Federation, WS-SecureConversation, SAML1, SAML2, and many more. Currently, no product or open source framework can fully support all of these standards. In our experience, incompatibilities arise whenever an SOA product or deployed Web service framework needs to communicate outside of its small ecosystem. Show less

Security requirements are usually relatively easy to manage when using local restrictions in conventional closed systems. They become more complex in the distributed system landscape of an SOA. Not limited to only an application or an application domain anymore, security must work across a range of applications and business processes.

Numerous security standards have been created in order to realize these comprehensive security requirements. These include WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Trust, XML… Show more

Security requirements are usually relatively easy to manage when using local restrictions in conventional closed systems. They become more complex in the distributed system landscape of an SOA. Not limited to only an application or an application domain anymore, security must work across a range of applications and business processes.

Numerous security standards have been created in order to realize these comprehensive security requirements. These include WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Trust, XML Encryption, XKMS, XML Signature, WS-Federation, WS-SecureConversation, SAML1, SAML2, and many more. Currently, no product or open source framework can fully support all of these standards. In our experience, incompatibilities arise whenever an SOA product or deployed Web service framework needs to communicate outside of its small ecosystem. Show less

Everyone seems to need to use an enterprise service bus (ESB) nowadays, but there is much confusion about its actual benefit and the various concepts this term entails. This uncertainty is revealed in statements like, "Help! My boss says we need an ESB," or "Why do I need an ESB at all? Can't I achieve the same thing with BPEL or BPMN?" or even "We can do everything ourselves in language X." This article is an attempt to answer some of the most important questions surrounding this term using… Show more

Everyone seems to need to use an enterprise service bus (ESB) nowadays, but there is much confusion about its actual benefit and the various concepts this term entails. This uncertainty is revealed in statements like, "Help! My boss says we need an ESB," or "Why do I need an ESB at all? Can't I achieve the same thing with BPEL or BPMN?" or even "We can do everything ourselves in language X." This article is an attempt to answer some of the most important questions surrounding this term using concrete examples, so that the areas of application that can be deemed "correct" for ESBs can be clarified:

What exactly is the definition of an ESB? Is it a product or an architecture pattern?
What are some practical uses for an ESB?
Do I need an ESB to build an SOA platform?
Which requirements do I need to satisfy?
Which criteria can I use to select the ESB that is most suitable for my needs?
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Introduction: In Search of the Holy Grail of SOA

In this article, we present and explore the fundamentals of applying the factory approach to modern service-oriented software development in an attempt to marry SOA industrialization with service contracts. As service developers and designers, how can we successfully fulfill factory requirements and achieve the essential characteristic of industrialized SOA while remaining compliant with standards on the service contract… Show more

Introduction: In Search of the Holy Grail of SOA

In this article, we present and explore the fundamentals of applying the factory approach to modern service-oriented software development in an attempt to marry SOA industrialization with service contracts. As service developers and designers, how can we successfully fulfill factory requirements and achieve the essential characteristic of industrialized SOA while remaining compliant with standards on the service contract level?

Thinking in terms of contracts has been found to be requisite for granular sourcing strategies that virtualize underlying implementations. Contracts also function as a common language between business units and IT teams, across cloud computing technologies, and for future-proof and agile enterprises in general.

Let's imagine that today's "pre-industrialized" world has become one in which contracts are been replaced by organizational and technical silos and the best solutions available. In today's SOA landscape, functional components are created for specific applications, often redundantly and lacking organization-wide standardization at the interface level. These components work well in a "silo" landscape in which the "application SOA" architecture is particularly suitable within the context of single applications. Show less

Services have to meet different architecture and governance requirements whose relevance is determined by how the services are reused. The arrangement and structure significantly affect the analysis and design of the services, which in turn determine the level of granularity. Categorizing services makes it easier to arrange them according to service usage in the procedural landscape, which helps prevent unwanted entanglements.

Abstract: SOA and service-orientation have laid the foundation for a variety of emergent service technology innovations, while the original building blocks of SOA and service-orientation continue to evolve by embracing fundamental service technologies, concepts and practices. These new technology innovations do not replace service-orientation; they use it as their basis. Service-orientation continues to evolve towards a factory approach, towards industrializing integrated platforms, such as BI,… Show more

Abstract: SOA and service-orientation have laid the foundation for a variety of emergent service technology innovations, while the original building blocks of SOA and service-orientation continue to evolve by embracing fundamental service technologies, concepts and practices. These new technology innovations do not replace service-orientation; they use it as their basis. Service-orientation continues to evolve towards a factory approach, towards industrializing integrated platforms, such as BI, master data management (MDM), mobile front-ends, BPM, adaptive processes, Big Data and Cloud Computing – all of which add architectural layers upon SOA-based infrastructure. All of these technologies can interface via standardized data and functions, published as service contracts, in order to avoid redundancy – that's service-orientation. Let's take a closer look Show less

This article introduces the foundations that need to be established in order to implement functional SOA processes. Rather than presenting specific tools, we will define a broadly applicable SOA blueprint whose individual modules can be topped up with commercial products or increasingly available open
source offerings.
A Company Blueprint

Upon examination of Figure 1, the vision of adaptive enterprise computing is illustrated as a meta-blueprint for the overall company with three… Show more

This article introduces the foundations that need to be established in order to implement functional SOA processes. Rather than presenting specific tools, we will define a broadly applicable SOA blueprint whose individual modules can be topped up with commercial products or increasingly available open
source offerings.
A Company Blueprint

Upon examination of Figure 1, the vision of adaptive enterprise computing is illustrated as a meta-blueprint for the overall company with three differentiated levels:

Infrastructure Level - This level is formed by databases, storage systems, application servers, and all other IT resources that are required to run IT systems.
Application System Level - This level houses entire applications, both individual applications and standard software, as well as services relating to SOA, workflow and BPM systems.
Process Management Level - Functional requirements are manifested in the process design and then implemented at the lower levels.
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What is SOA?
Why is SOA important?
What is the status of SOA?
What is the future of SOA?
How can you start with SOA?

"BPMN ist tot, es lebe BPEL" – so lautete der Titel des Diskussionspanels im Rahmen des SOA & BPM Integration Days 2011, an dem Experten aus den jeweiligen Gebieten die Berechtigung beider Technologien unter die Lupe nahmen. BPMN versus BPEL – wo liegen die jeweiligen Stärken und Schwächen beider Ansätze?