26
APRIL, 2005
Gif
aims at interoperability
If there
is one thing that is certain, it is that while the implementation of a
service-based infrastructure will bring significant advances in operational
flexibility on a day-to-day basis, it will also bring with it a much greater
need for strong corporate governance. With that in mind it is, therefore,
interesting to see the appearance of the Governance Interoperability Framework
(GIF).
This is a new, hopefully industry-wide movement that has been started
by Systinet, which specialises in SOA governance issues with its Business
Registry offering, but already includes Above All Software, Actional,
AmberPoint, Composite Software, DataPower, HP, Layer 7 Technologies, MetaMatrix,
Reactivity, and Service Integrity. Systinet's Business Services Registry
will act as the system-of-record for the Framework, where it will have
the important role of controlling an SOA across multiple vendors and technologies
within an environment that brings together SOA management, security, integration,
enterprise information integration, composite applications and business
intelligence vendors for the first time.
The Registry pays the important role of being the repository of the published
services and associated policies, all held in a standardized way. This
means that GIF participants benefit by being alerted to changes within
the Registry when they happen. This is potentially very significant, as
one of the fears currently being tweaked by some SOA solutions vendors
is the old chestnut that to buy everything from one vendor is safer than
the mix'n'match option. The trouble is, at this point in time, that is
probably true. It could involve architects in some real brain work to
ensure that any mix of `best of breed' components in the service infrastructure
remain fully interoperable if one component is changed or upgraded to
a new version. Having all relevant information about such changes held
in a single, accessible place, together with information about the implications
for other applications and components, has to be a sensible idea.
The point about SOA is the flexibility that comes from the loose-coupling
of applications and components, but this in turn has to be done within
a set of rules, and all participants have to play by them. It is early
days, and one can expect at least one alternative to GIF to emerge as
other vendors decided they'd rather do their own thing than be seen as
joining someone else's party, but GIF has to be seen as a move in the
right direction.
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