Open Group SOA Reference Architecture fit with Oracle SOA Products

In December 2011, the Open Group published a SOA Reference Architecture which according to their web site "... provides guidelines and options for making architecture, design, and implementation decisions when adopting a service-oriented approach to information technology. Its goal is to be a blueprint for creating or evaluating architecture. Additionally, it provides insights, patterns, and the building blocks for integrating fundamental elements of SOA into an enterprise or solution architecture."

I thought it would be interesting to see how Oracle's SOA Suite 11g products fit into this reference architecture.  Note that Oracle has never released an official reference architecture for their SOA product line, so an architectural comparison is a matter of opinion and always somewhat subjective.

High Level View

The Open Group's SOA reference architecture starts with a high-level functional summary as shown below.

Each of these layers will be examined in a separate blog post.  However, even at a high-level, we can start to map the various Oracle SOA products to this picture.  Here's how I view it:

Vertical Layers

• Consumer Interfaces - Oracle WebCenter, ADF, B2B Gateway, Human Workflow, and Oracle Fusion Applications
• Business Processes - Oracle BPMN, BPEL, and Enterprise Service Bus
• Services - developed using Oracle BPEL, ADF, or custom Java code
• Service Components - Oracle SOA Enterprise Manager, Weblogic or other application server
• Operational systems - Weblogic or other application server

Horizontal Layers

• Integration - primarily developed using Oracle BPEL or Enterprise Service Bus.  The Oracle Event Delivery Network (EDN) also fits at this level.
• Quality of Service - Oracle Business Activity Monitor, Grid Control, Enterprise Manager and Weblogic Remote Diagnostics Framework
• Information - Oracle technology adapters and Service Data Objects
• Governance - Oracle Service Registry, Enterprise Repository, Enterprise Manager, Metadata Store (MDS), Business Rules, and Web Services Manager (OWSM).

Copyright Notices

The Open Group's SOA Reference Architecture is Copyright 2011.  The full text can be downloaded here.