Novel SOA Approach

I read a press release from Kofax who, through SOA, brings desktop functions to the server.

The novel approach that Kofax has taken to document capture (scanning and imaging) first attracted my attention in a TestDrive advertorial in last month’s Dr. Dobbs. With the introduction of a small device, and a comprehensive set of web service APIs, Kofax has taken what was once a desktop-only function and made it available in a web application.

This is what SOA is truly about; taking isolated functions and computing resources and making them scale upwards. Scanning was once performed via a heavy-client TWAIN application. But thanks to Kofax and SOA, it’s now web-enabled, and it can be integrated with the rest of an organization’s enterprise applications via a standard: SOAP.

Some people get it, and some don’t. SOA is not about Microsoft vs. Sun; or C++ vs. Java. You can build your service provider or service consumer in COBOL and it won’t matter. Simply adhere to the foundations of SOA (which implies XML over a web protocol such as HTTP), and you achieve a level of abstraction that enables you to integrate disparate applications and data types to form new solutions.

Yes, Kofax built a great deal of their interface in Java, but that’s not what’s important here. I’m impressed with what Kofax has done because it’s a shining example of a problem solved with a true service-oriented architecture. It’s not technology for technology’s sake; but a real solution that was not easily achievable without SOA: enterprise integration of what was once a once desktop-only function. Document scanning can now be web-enabled, and be made transaction-aware (through ESB integration, for example) via the straightforward web service interface that Kofax has built to their product suite. That’s sweet.

-EJB

Posted by Eric Bruno at 09:29 AM  Permalink