Forrester Research predicts that mashups will be a $682 million industry in the next 5 years [REF-1]. But can you define mashups? Can you describe the value of mashups to an SOA architect or even a business user? Can you outline the relationship between mashups and existing enterprise technology? Knowing the answers to these questions will advance you well down the road to embracing the concepts and techniques behind mashups in your organization. This three-part series will help you get a head start by discussing the gritty details. In Part 1 we'll define a mashup in the context of the enterprise, contrast it against other common data integration technologies, and outline some of the more important architectural elements. In Part 2 we'll discuss why SOA architects should care about enterprise mashups. Finally, in Part 3 we'll discuss an enterprise architecture that incorporates mashups as part of your SOA-enabled ERP/CRM/SFA/BI and homegrown applications. Everyone seems to have a gut "feel" for the term, but many can't seem to put their finger on it. According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey from January 2007, 64% of companies are already adopting...

The term "shadow IT" was coined for systems built without corporate approval inside business units, departments and whole subsidiaries. Born from the IT backlogs of every organization, shadow IT can drive innovation and effectiveness without hindering larger IT evolution. While organizations wrestle to centralize their applications, the reality is shadow IT is not going away. As such, it is most effective to ensure the sustainability of shadow IT instead of attempting to avoid it. To be sustainable, this innovation at the edge must take advantage of central SOA environments and, when the time comes, seamlessly scale into a service-oriented enterprise and become an active part of it. However, for this to be achievable, edge applications must have certain capabilities and satisfy certain conditions. Large enterprises are continually struggling with the problem of deploying the right IT architecture to support their independent business units or remote subsidiaries. From the point of view of an IT organization, centralizing business applications makes sense, since it decreases cost of ownership and relieves maintenance headaches. The flipside of centralization is that branch organizations and business...

The Prentice Hall Service Technology Series from Thomas Erl

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