In this keynote, recorded at QCon London 2008, ThoughtWorks' Chief Scientist and bestselling author Martin Fowler and Global Head of Architecture Jim Webber share their views of the typical corporate ESB, which in their opinion has grown too fat for its own good. Martin and Jim suggest the Web's architecture as a possible and more light-weight alternative, in line with their preference for agile approaches.
In their visual and funny presentation, Martin and Jim first explore the history of enterprise integration, outlining how ever more sophisticated integration middleware became more and more important, until every enterprise architect was expected to have in-depth knowledge of such toolkits. They take exception to the mainstream view on SOA, which in their interpretation puts way too much significance on intelligent middleware – an ESB – to connect various consumers and providers in an SOA. While understandable from a vendor's point of view, they claim there is more benefit in relying on a less smart network, with intelligent endpoints at the edges. In their opinion, the Web has emerged as a scalable platform for connectivity, and in combination with agile methods, which have become accepted in enterprise circles, offers a compelling vision for the future.
Watch the full presentation (42 minutes).
In their visual and funny presentation, Martin and Jim first explore the history of enterprise integration, outlining how ever more sophisticated integration middleware became more and more important, until every enterprise architect was expected to have in-depth knowledge of such toolkits. They take exception to the mainstream view on SOA, which in their interpretation puts way too much significance on intelligent middleware – an ESB – to connect various consumers and providers in an SOA. While understandable from a vendor's point of view, they claim there is more benefit in relying on a less smart network, with intelligent endpoints at the edges. In their opinion, the Web has emerged as a scalable platform for connectivity, and in combination with agile methods, which have become accepted in enterprise circles, offers a compelling vision for the future.
Watch the full presentation (42 minutes).