'New' Best Practice for SOA/ESB?

2006-06-26

Simply stated:

Use WebSphere Process Server as much as possible, and WebSphere ESB as little as possible.

Process Server provides a layer to implement a business process - this is (or should be, or could be) ‘interesting’ to a business. ESB simply provides the glue to tie things together - auditing, converting one interface to another, etc. So don’t fall into the trap of faking Process Server functionality in ESB, when Process Server provides it all already.

Comments

[...] A recent podcast of his about SOA semantics and layering reminded me of something I wrote some time ago regarding a best practice for using WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Process Server (which could be logically extended to any ESB / BPM software combination), which is: use Process Server as much as possible and ESB as little as possible. Ultimately, everyone involved in your SOA is (or should be) trying to solve business problems, and almost all of the interesting ones lie in the BPM space. ESB (much as I hate to admit it, working on a team that develops one!) is about solving the nitty-gritty technical issues regarding connecting services, rather than the business ones. It’s worth bearing this distinction in mind when developing your SOA. Posted by andrewferrier Filed in SOA, ESB, Process Server [...]

— SOA Semantics with ESB and Process Server « SOA Tips ‘n’ Tricks 2006-11-02 14:21