"Composability within SOA" will be the focus of Open Standards 2008, the fifth annual symposium hosted by OASIS, the international, not-for-profit consortium. The event, which will be held in Santa Clara, California, 28 April — 1 May, will examine the critical issues faced when architecting service-oriented applications and the benefits being reaped by real-world implementations that take advantage of Web services transactions. Presentations on the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), Service Component Architecture (SCA), Service Data Objects (SDO), WS-Transaction, and related standards will be featured.

In an Open Standards 2008 keynote address, Peter Carbone, Vice President, SOA, Office of the CTO at Nortel, will share insights on the new realities presented by communications-enabled applications and the opportunities they create for standards development, software vendors, and service providers. According to Carbone, "Communications-enabled applications are requiring current SOA frameworks to extend capabilities. They're testing accepted definitions of scale, scope, performance, and even partnership models."

Doug Shoupp, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will address the concept of "services thinking" in a second keynote. "To unlock the enormous potential of SOA, you need to raise the discussion from the IT shop to the executive suite and focus on longterm business agility and execution within organizations," Shoupp said.

SAP AG, Premiere Sponsor of Open Standards 2008, will moderate the closing panel, "SOA within the Vertical Industries." Representatives from OpenTravel, TM Forum, and the U.S. Veterans Health Administration will participate in this panel.

"I'm looking forward to leading a lively discussion with representatives from vertical industry consortia on how the application of SOA concepts and standards varies across different industry sectors, and what we can expect for the future," said Claus von Riegen, director, Technology Standards and Open Source at SAP AG.

The OASIS Open CSA Member Section will host a table-top exhibition showcasing SCA and SDO supporters, BEA, IBM, Primeton, Rogue Wave, SAP, Software AG, and Sun Microsystems. Executives from these companies will participate in a press briefing on the current state of SCA on Tuesday, 29 April, at noon.

Support for Open Standards 2008

BEA Systems
"The OASIS Composability within SOA Symposium will be an excellent opportunity to hear from thought leaders in the area of SOA and composite applications," said Edward Cobb, Vice President, Emerging Technology & Standards, BEA Systems. "BEA is pleased to be a sponsor of this important event."

Rogue Wave
"As companies move towards deploying SOA, there will be a growing demand for developers to find a way to leverage the agility and flexibility that the architecture offers. Since there is a software legacy issue in utilizing SOA, developers will be faced with either the 'rip and replace' option or a significant code rewrite," said Patrick Leonard, VP, Engineering and Product Strategy at Rogue Wave. "We believe development teams should be able to modernize their existing applications without ever leaving the installed code base, and can solve this problem with our Hydra Product Suite."

SAP
"Enterprise SOA helps customers and partners transform their IT environments into more responsive, efficient business networks that enable process innovation and new business models — creating value beyond the four walls of the enterprise," said Michael Bechauf, vice president, Industry Standards, SAP. "As a sponsor of the OASIS Open Standards 2008 Symposium, we're looking forward to an event that brings developers, users and technology suppliers together to share experiences and innovative ideas for successfully utilizing SOA in their business."

Software AG
"As a leader in SOA, Software AG is committed to supporting open standards that promote interoperability in heterogeneous IT environments," said Franco Castaldini, Director of SOA Product Marketing. "Our commitment to open standards is exemplified by the market's leading community for SOA interoperability, the CentraSite Community, where our network of more than 50 partners ensures that open standards like UDDI, WS-I, BPEL, and JAXR are used to promote interoperability."

Sun Microsystems
"The OASIS symposium is a great forum to discuss the current state of composability standards and implementations, including best practices and potential obstacles," said Carl Cargill, Director of Corporate Standards, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "As a foundational member, Sun has been involved since the beginning in the development of SOA standards, participating in basic Web services technical committees. More recently, Sun has participated in the Open CSA Member Section and technical committees affiliated with it, including SCA-J TC, the SCA-Policy TC, and the SCA-Assembly TC, helping technology architects find ways to make composite applications work and implement successful SOA projects."

For more information:
http://events.oasis-open.org/home/symposium/2008

Read the complete announcement from OASIS.