Introduction
Service Oriented Computing (SOC) is a new rising paradigm
for building distributed systems and e-business applications in heterogonous
environments, using cooperative autonomous services built by different
venders and organizations. The approach has been greatly inspired by the
wide acceptance and success of web services and the underlying protocols.
Web services provided the first widely accepted solution for the
interoperability problem in distributed environments. Developers and
designers realized that web services provided unprecedented possibilities
and opportunities for building global distributed environments in a
cooperative manner. The building blocks of these environments are loosely
coupled services that are capable of interacting with each other
irrespective of the platform and location.
The main features characterizing Service Oriented
Architectures include:
• The underlying services are loosely coupled and autonomous
• Services comprising an SOA system may be built by different vendors, using
different programming languages on top of different platforms (span
organizations and platforms).
• Services may be used to map business processes and workflows in a direct
easy way.
• Dramatic change in relationship between businesses and IT. SOA makes
technology a real business enabler.
• Since services are autonomous, they can adapt easily to changes of
requirements and context. All that matters is the service interface or
contract.
The subject of Service Oriented Computing is vast, complex, spans many
concepts and technologies and poses a lot of challenges.
The main objectives of this workshop are:
• Introduce SOC for local engineers and developers
• Highlight the importance and implications of this new approach
• Point out the advantages and possibilities provided by SOC
• Create local SOC groups, forums and communities that help in promoting and
building solid expertise in the area.
• Investigate how e-Government and e-Business designers in KSA may benefit
form this rising approach.
• Initiate solid research and development in SOC.
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