Choosing a platform on which to build services is probably the easiest decision IT faces. When cooking up services from scratch, most organizations simply go with their developers’ strength, as Web service creation tools have matured across all the major development platforms, from Java app servers to .Net on Windows to COBOL on z/OS. When exposing the functionality of existing applications as services, however, some companies also use ESBs as a platform because services can be provisioned via configuration rather than coding.
What matters from the start is building services in accordance with Web services — and in some cases Java — standards, says Martin Moseley, chief architect of integration architecture solutions at Intuit. Standardizing on XML and SOAP means that you can use the widest possible range of tools to orchestrate services. John Turato, vice president of technology at car-rental company Avis Budget Group, is on the same page. As he puts it, “We avoid the add-ons and stick to the vanilla.”
