Event-Driven Architecture

Improving Business Agility with EDAGoing beyond SOA, enterprises can gain even greater agility by implementing event-driven architectures (EDAs) that automatically detect and react to significant business events. However, EDA planning and deployment is complex, and even experienced SOA architects and developers need expert guidance. In Event-Driven Architecture, four leading IT innovators present both the theory of EDA and practical, step-by-step guidance to implementing it successfully.The authors first establish a thorough and workable definition of EDA and explore how EDA can help solve many of today’s most difficult business and IT challenges. You’ll learn how EDAs work, what they can do today, and what they might be able to do as they mature. You’ll learn how to determine whether an EDA approach makes sense in your environment and how to overcome the difficult interoperability and integration issues associated with successful deployment. Finally, the authors present chapter-length case studies demonstrating how both full and partial EDA implementations can deliver exceptional business value. Coverage includes How SOA and Web services can power event-driven architectures The role of SOA infrastructure, governance, and security in EDA environments EDA core components: event consumers and producers, message backbones, Web service transport, and more EDA patterns, including simple event processing, event stream processing, and complex event processing Designing flexible stateless events that can respond to unpredictable customers, suppliers, and business partners Addressing technical and business challenges such as project management and communication EDA at work: real-world applications across multiple verticals Hugh Taylor is a social software evangelist for IBM Lotus Software. He coauthored Understanding Enterprise SOA and has written extensively on Web services and SOA. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Angela Yochem is an executive in a multinational technology company and is a recognized thought leader in architecture and large-scale technology management. Les Phillips, VP, enterprise architecture, at SunTrust Banks Inc., is responsible for defining the strategic and business IT foundation for many areas of the enterprise. Frank Martinez, EVP, product strategy, at SOA Software, is a recognized expert on distributed, enterprise application, and infrastructure platforms. He has served as senior operating executive for several venture-backed firms and helped build Intershop Communications into a multibillion-dollar public company.Foreword xiPreface xiiIntroduction 1Event-Driven Architecture: A Working Definition 1The “New” Era of Interoperability Dawns 6The ETA for Your EDA 9Endnotes 9PART I THE THEORY OF EDAChapter 1 EDA: Opportunities and Obstacles 13The Vortex 13EDA: A Working Systemic Definition 14The (Not So Smooth) Path to EDA 24Defining Interoperability 26Drivers of Interoperability 28Application Integration: A Means to Interoperate 29Interoperation and Business Process Management 31Is There a Diet for All This Spaghetti? 35How Architecture Promotes Integration 37Management and Governance 39Chapter Summary 43Endnote 45Chapter 2 SOA: The Building Blocks of EDA 47Making You an Offer You Can’t Understand 47SOA: The Big Picture 48Defining Service 49Service-Based Integration 50Web Services 51What Is SOA? 59Loose Coupling in the SOA 60Chapter Summary 61Chapter 3 Characteristics of EDA 63Firing Up the Corporate Neurons 63Revisiting the Enterprise Nervous System 63The Ideal EDA 78BAM--A Related Concept 86Chapter Summary 87Endnotes 89Chapter 4 The Potential of EDA 91Introduction 91EDA’s Potential in Enterprise Computing 91EDA and Enterprise Agility 100EDA and Society’s Computing Needs 102EDA and Compliance 107Chapter Summary 108Chapter 5 The SOA-EDA Connection 111Getting Real 111Event Services 112The Service Network 114Implementing the SOA and Service Network 116How