SOA Management Suites
Posted by
Lori MacVittie
June 30, 2006
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Managing a SOA isn't for the faint of heart. Services crop up like mushrooms and comprise multiple touch points (operations) that may require different policies based on the person or application using the service. Forget conventional methods of managing and monitoring Web resources--they can't offer visibility into the operation being executed within a service. Most are capable only of recording and monitoring URIs, and log-culling products simply cannot provide a transactional view of service use for your service-oriented architecture.
You need an application that can monitor services at the operation level, perform authentication and authorization, apply security policies that safeguard the privacy of data, conform to regulations such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley, and ensure availability of services using SLA management and enforcement. Oh, and it must also integrate into your existing architecture.
Traditional APM (application performance monitoring) models in the form of agents residing on enterprise service platforms, such as BEA Systems' WebLogic or IBM's WebSphere, don't fit the bill because they haven't evolved along with SOA. APM agents are focused on URIs and don't speak XML or SOAP, both must-haves to collect metrics and apply policies accurately based on XML-specific standards and best practices, such as encryption, data transformation and monitoring at the operation level. They're also not proficient at enforcing policies that may modify requests and/or responses, nor can they perform authentication and authorization. Give 'em the boot.
