As more enterprises adopt service-oriented architectures for delivering information and access to applications to customers, employees, and business partners, I.T. pioneers warn that security should be top of mind. "You have to think of security up-front as one of the core functions of SOA," says Shawn Furgason, manager of Web delivery at Rockwell Collins, Inc. "If you go into SOA without a comprehensive understanding of your security needs long-term, it's easy to make a short-term decision that will cost you in the end."
Furgason is just one of many I.T. pros charting new territory with SOA models. At Rockwell Collins, SOA is used as a framework for the company's customer and supplier portals, which deal with equipment repairs and managing the movement of materials.
