Integrating disparate software systems has been a challenge for business and IT professionals since, well since the second software system was created. Today, with so many applications available that deliver value-added services, the opportunity to streamline processes and create unique service offerings is greater than ever before. The challenge, as it has always been, is to quickly get these various systems to work together. So how can we meet this challenge? I am glad to say that the solution is already in place and that it is finally taking its rightful place as the platform of choice for enterprise application integration. The solution is the Web Oriented Architecture.
First, a definition is in order: the term “Web Oriented Architecture” was coined in 2006 by Nick Gall, a vice president of the Gartner Group, to give a descriptive name to a method of facilitating information and service sharing between disparate applications using Representational State Transfer (REST). REST is simple and efficient – yet powerful – set of protocols for requesting, processing, receiving, updating and rendering data via the web. Under REST, web services are called using URIs (uniform resource identifiers) and in turn these services perform powerful operations and then return anything from an XML data packet to a fully rendered HTML page. REST relies on the standard communication mechanism that forms the foundation of the World Wide Web, that is, it uses GET and POST calls to communicate. These terms may sound complex, but you already use URIs, GETs and POSTs. For example, the URI http://maps.yahoo.com is a GET command that calls Yahoo’s mapping service to render an HTML page on your browser. By specifying arguments in the URI request, the web service is able to return more specific information.
Although the term “WOA” is somewhat new, the biggest and most successful web service providers, including Google, Yahoo and Amazon, have used the concepts behind REST for years. At Euclid, we started building our Web Oriented Architecture back in 2000, right after its underlying principles were published in a 2000 doctoral thesis by Dr. Roy Fielding. Before Gall coined this term, we didn’t quite know what to call our architecture, so we just called it “Euclid’s Web Architecture” – which, unsurprisingly, was not adopted as a global industry standard. As the evidence has mounted as to the advantages of WOA, even Microsoft has begun moving away from proprietary web service interfaces and is now natively supporting REST-based web services in .Net 3.5. With its power and simplicity, the WOA is the primary enabler and driving force behind Web 2.0.
In short, the WOA/REST approach to web integration opens up a world of back-office and online possibilities for associations, while simultaneously reducing development costs, maintenance headaches, and platform dependence. In the back office, for example, enterprise applications such as the accounting, HR, and the AMS can have real-time integration completed in just a few hours. Operations can be streamlined further by quickly integrating with third-party service providers such as printing companies, shipping vendors and credit card processors (e.g., FedEx, UPS, USPS, PayPal, Authorize.net and others have REST-based interfaces). Customer-facing technologies, such as the association website, benefit from quick integration between various web applications (such as the CMS, community website, and the AMS) and further benefit from the ability to easily add relevant and unique services (such as relevant breaking news stories) by simply adding a URL to a webpage.
At Euclid, our experience is that a WOA streamlines client operations and enables more functional websites – at a fraction of the time and cost of other approaches. To find out more, please visit http://www.euclidtechnology.com/WOA.