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  • 12/17/2007

MSDN Architecture Center - Special Coverage

Software Architecture is continuously evolving. And such evolution not necessarily goes in only one direction. One of the challenges of the software architect, nowadays, is to understand such evolution and, even much more important, to know how his organization can take advantage from evolution.

Some new topics are so popular that many people are urged to apply them immediately, wiht a later frustration as result. Others are covered by a halo of mysticism, so several architects consider them inapplicable to their contexts in order not to investigate, get involved or learn about them.

For that reason, we set aside some outstanding topics and organized them into Special Subsections, to help you be familiarized with them, understand their features and benefits, and consider from a better and more accurately perspective, which profits you can gain from them.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

The goal for a SOA is a world wide mesh of collaborating services, which are published and available for invocation on the Service Bus. Adopting SOA is essential to deliver the business agility and IT flexibility promised by Web Services. These benefits are delivered not by just viewing service architecture from a technology perspective and the adoption of Web Service protocols, but require the creation of a Service Oriented Environment.
Software as a Service (SaaS) Software plus Services (S+S)

The future is a combination of local software and Internet services interacting with one another. Software makes services better and services make software better. And by bringing together the best of both worlds, we maximize choice, flexibility and capabilities for our customers. We describe this evolutionary path in our industry as Software + Services.
Office Business Applications (OBA) Office Business Applications (OBA)

Microsoft Office has evolved beyond a productivity suite into a unified solutions platform that makes enterprise data and processes more accessible and relevant to users. Composed of clients, servers, services, and tools, it provides a single infrastructure for communication and collaboration, business intelligence, and content management solutions. This site brings together relevant ideas, concepts, and best practices to aid architects in designing and building applications using the Microsoft Office System.
Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture has become a common practice for large IT organizations. For the first time there is a methodology to encompass all of the various IT aspects and processes into a single practice. However, realizing the full potential of Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be challenging. There are many aspects that range from architecture planning, governance, taxonomies and ontologies that all have impacts on the success of EA. Without the right guidance, tools, frameworks and methodologies EA can quickly become unwieldy.
Security by Design Security by Design

Secure software is all about security guarantees. What security protections does your end product promise to deliver? The question may seem trivial or too general, but answering it completely and correctly leads directly to more solid designs, as well as more targeted testing of the finished product. Understanding your security guarantees will allow you to avoid making promises that you can not possibly deliver on.