2008 Conference Themes

The SOA Journey

Implementing a successful SOA is more like a journey than a process.

SOA adoption requires not only planning but an organizational commitment to remain focused and an understanding that the benefits and ROI are often long-term. Sessions at SHARE will explain how you can manage legacy applications and new business solutions at every stage of the SOA continuum, what skills are needed to execute your transformation and how you can predict the ROI for your organization.

In addition to a full offering of education covering SOA , SHARE will have a unique set of sessions in partnership with the SOA Consortium, a new advocacy group comprised of end users, service providers and technology vendors with the mission to see SOA successfully adopted by 2010. This program includes a keynote presentation by Brenda Michelson, IT strategist, hands-on practitioner and the voice of business-driven architecture.

Brenda Michelson is a Principal Consultant for Elemental Links and also contributes architecturally to the Patricia Seybold Group. Brenda spent 19 years in corporate IT, most recently as Chief Enterprise Architect for L.L. Bean. At L.L. Bean, Brenda was responsible for the articulation and execution of the enterprise architecture strategy (J2EE transformation, enterprise integration, SOA and EDA), strategic planning, portfolio management and talent development. Previous to L.L. Bean, over the span of 10 years, Brenda provided development services for Insurance, Banking, a Chip Manufacturer and a world leader in Aircraft Engine Design & Manufacturing.

The SOA Journey Content in Orlando:

SHARE in Orlando will feature a wide variety of tracks geared towards the theme The SOA Journey. Click here to view a spreadsheet of tracks focused on SOA.

SOA Consortium Presents Lessons on SOA Adoption -- Merrill Lynch's SOA & Mainframe Story (Session 8525)

Jim Crew, former Director of Infrastructure at Merrill Lynch, will share Merrill's service-oriented legacy architecture 'SOLA' story, including the driving forces, his vision, the SOLA architecture, the hugely successful business outcome, lessons learned, and his (and SOLA's) current positions at SOA Software.

Jim recognized that there were tremendous efficiencies to be gained by introducing service-oriented architecture to the mainframe and in 2001 he chartered a team to explore the possibilities offered by using Web Services to re-use existing mainframe assets in composite applications. After considerable research, Jim determined that the key to integrating the mainframe into a service-oriented architecture was to build a tool that took advantage of the reliability and scalability of the mainframe while offering full conformance to service-oriented architecture standards. Thanks to the ease of use and efficiency of SOLA, Merrill estimates that it has saved at least $42,000,000 while making the firm more agile and improving the reliability of the environment.

Richard Soley, SOA Consortium Executive Director, will host the session, providing a brief overview of the SOA Consortium and moderating audience Q&A on the SOLA story and SOA adoption.

What DB2 People Should Know About SOA (Session 1328)
Robert Catteral - Catteral Consulting

Misperceptions about Service-Oriented Architecture abound. Do you think that Web services equates to SOA? Do you think that mainframes and SOA are mutually exclusive? Do you think that loose coupling of application components implies multiple back-end database servers? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. This session aims to demystify SOA concepts and terminology, explain the relationship between SOA and XML, and describe the advantages of SOA in business terms.

Robert Catterall is President of Catterall Consulting, a provider of data-centric consulting and training services. Robert started his IT career with IBM in 1982. In 1990 he joined the DB2 National Technical Support team at the IBM Dallas Systems Center. In 2000, Robert joined CheckFree Corporation, where he played a leading role in database technology strategy and planning. He launched Catterall Consulting in 2007. Robert is a past President of the International DB2 Users Group and a member of the IDUG Speakers Hall of Fame. He has been the author of the "DB2 DBA" column in DB2 Magazine since 2000.

Virtualization

Panacea, pandemonium or something in between?

Virtualization is much broader than simple server virtualization. It also extends to network, storage and even application virtualization. Success will depend on understanding the implementation possibilities and being prepared for the complexity of IT service management in the virtualized and consolidated environment.

Sessions in Orlando will discuss the challenges associated with solutions that cross multiple products and vendors, have locally developed code, contain data from multiple sources and execute across multiple hardware environments.

Featured sessions covering network and storage virtualization as well as System z virtualization include:

• The Role of Storage Virtualization in Enterprise Computing

• Introduction to Network Virtualization
• Details of SAN Virtualization – Today and in the Future
• Preparing to Successfully Deploy and Execute Virtualization
• IBM Transformation: Major IT Consolidation Initiative

2008 SHARE Award for Excellence in Technology

Has your team developed strategies to improve your business, reduce costs and gain competitive advantage? Have you scoped out solutions that deal with complexities facing the IT industry and developed innovative methods to reach your objectives?

If so, then it’s time to enlighten the community! Check out orlando.share.org/award to learn more and submit your entry.

SHARE in Orlando
February 24-29, 2008
Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
Lake Buena Vista, Florida