| If you are not viewing the newsletter click here | ||||||||
 |
||||||||
| Hello |
||||||||
In this edition: Ci&T opens SOA Development Center in Brazil. The
Service-Oriented Architeture is also the highlight in an article written
by two of the company's specialists, covering both the technology and
its current trends. Also in this edition read about Ci&T's international
events and learn more about the complete automated Brazilian electoral
system with one of the fastest tallying systems in the world. Enjoy it! |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
SOA at the center of discussion |
||||||||
|
SOA at the center of discussion SOA is the acronym for “Service-Oriented Architecture”. In the Information Technology era rarely has an acronym generated so much discussion over large company CIOs’ investment plans. However, though there’s a consensus over the fact that SOA is a trend in most of the companies, there’s still a lot of confusion about its meaning as it relates to its pragmatic application within corporations. Service-Oriented Architecture is the IT industry’s response to the new market reality, which calls for Information Technology to produce results, in increasingly less time and cost. Additionally, SOA heightens the increased alignment between a company’s business strategic objectives and its initiatives in the technology arena. Ci&T, in accordance with this reality, already applies SOA concepts to projects developed for its clients, helping them to tread their course in a more effortless and well-informed fashion. The basic principle behind Service-Oriented Architecture is that many systems in a company can be built through the reuse of services available in components, or smaller and independent modules. This way, both the cost and time required to develop a new application can be drastically reduced, aside from the benefits gained from technology centralization upon the implementation of business concepts and standardization of the diverse architectures present in a number of pre-existing systems. Technically speaking, SOA can be translated as the intersection of three factors: the componentization of business services, the exposure of such components and the access to its services in the most technology-free possible, standardized approach. Though much has been said and spent in the last two years, the first is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important and, unfortunately, the most neglected in the majority of SOA implementation initiatives. The implementation of a strategy consistent with componentization in software production is a fundamental step towards the success or failure of any SOA strategy. Close attention must be paid to business requirement specifications for each application, followed by attention to both the Architecture and each of its functionalities designs. Then, it’s necessary to provide mechanisms, processes and right and efficient tools to enable the identification, reuse and control of already-existing components. At Ci&T, pioneer in the implementation of the Component-Based Development (CBD) concept, these considerations are at the core of the development process and the company’s Architecture of Reference, as well as the reliance on powerful tools, such as DigitalAssets Manager, to help in the management of such initiatives. Once the applications are built according to a component-based architecture, the next step is to expose these business services components in the most technology-free and standardized fashion possible. Regarding this, the use of Web Services stands out as an industry standard, given its characteristic of high interoperability among different technology platforms. Finally, to simplify and control access to these services, it’s common to use specialized software, such as message brokers, middleware and blockers/filters. Besides considerations regarding security, transactions management, information integrity, performance, integrations and services monitoring, the majority of software has a set of pre-existing connectors or adaptors. These adaptors allow legacy applications (ERPs, CRMs, databases, etc.)— independently from the technology platform on which they were built and are being executed — to also provide their services through standard means such as Web Services, for example. All major software suppliers (BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, etc.) offer complete, powerful solutions to meet these demands. The implementation and configuration of these solutions is a painstaking process involving many areas in a company. Ci&T, through its partnerships with these vendors, has the knowledge and the experience required to perform this type of work. Transforming SOA into something concrete, driving objective and positive results for the client is and will remain one of the biggest challenges in the IT industry in the next few years. It’s essential for this crucial work to rely on the support from partners specialized in the aforementioned concepts and technologies. Ci&T, given its professional capabilities, its experience in the many different business segments and its strategic partnerships with major technology vendors in the market, is by far the best choice.  Paulo Roberto V. Camara is Sr. Systems Architect and the coordinator for the group responsible for the Software Components Development and Maintenance at Ci&T. Kleber Bacili is Ci&T’s Product Manager and has graduated in Computer Engineering from UNICAMP. He’s also a professor and the SOA course coordinator at the Brazilian Institute for Advanced Technology (IBTA). |
||||||||
Events Brazilian Outsourcing Firm at the Gartner – Brazil IT , an initiative by a group of Brazilian IT companies to promote Brazilian IT capabilities — of which Ci&T and ActMinds are members — participated at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2006, in Orlando, October 8-13. This is the third time Brazil IT attended the major world conference for IT professionals, this time as the Outsourcing & IT Services Marketplace sponsor. Representing one of the biggest IT markets in the world, with 4000 operating companies and an annual revenue of US$17 billion, Brazil IT also presented a Success Case on innovations in the industry, focusing on flex fuel technology developed in Brazil ActMinds at MEDNET – Between October 13 and 20, in Toronto, Canada, the joint-venture ActMinds — of which Ci&T is a partner— participated for the first time at the MEDNET Conference, as part of its expansion drive in the American market. At the scientific conference organized by the Society for the Internet in Medicine (SIM), ActMinds presented its experience in the Healthcare segment in the last 10 years, emerging as a promising supplier in this sector for companies the seeking to outsource their IT operations. DA Inc. at the OOPSLA – Ci&T presented its DigitalAssets Manager and the results of its Network Sharing Software project, at OOPSLA - ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages and Applications which took place in Portland, WA, U.S. on October 22-26. OOPSLA is one of the most well-respected academic events in the world. Ci&T presented the project developed in partnership with Unicamp, with CNPq’s support. Further details on the DigitalAssets Manager solution at: http://www.digitalassetsmanager.com and about the event, please visit: http://www.oopsla.org/2006/ |
||||||||
Did you know... ... that Brazil has one of the most sophisticated voting systems in the world? - since 2002, the whole electoral process has been completely computerized, protected by a rigorous security system;
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
