In a recent ebizQ forum discussion on the roll of user-created applications, such as enterprise mashups, my colleague Michael Poulan asked this question: What do front-end applications and mashups have to do with SOA?
Good question, Michael -- how does an enterprise mashup fit into the scheme of things? John Crupi and Chris Warner, of Jackbe fame, attempt to connect the dots in an article with a title that says it all -- "Enterprise Mashups: Bringing SOA to the People." (Part 2 here.)
A mashup server, they say, "can have pre-negotiated contracts with the messy list of common enterprise data source types (SQL/DAO, WSDL, REST, RSS, POJO, etc.). It can even bring a little order to this cloud through a single 'virtual service' veneer, letting non-technical users mash sources without the need to understand the difference between acronyms like WSDL, RSS, and REST." All this through a drag-and-drop interface, they add.
They also not that a mashup can be a first-class service consumer within an SOA setting. However, they add, "your mashup efforts must address governance, granularity and
scope issues as proactively as your SOA efforts did." At this point, they add, "any SOA architect worth his WSDL should see that
mashups can greatly enhance an SOA and don't necessarily ignore or break
the principles that made your SOA great."
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