Summary:

Loosely Coupled is the first book to address the advanced issues of web services--currently the hottest topic in IT. While the authors of earlier web-services books approached the topic through the technologies and protocols (which are changing on a month-to-month basis), Doug Kaye has collaborated with the field's most respected technologists to create the ultimate strategic guide to web services for IT managers and executives. Loosely Coupled addresses the most difficult aspects of web services including security, reliable messaging, and long-lived loosely coupled asynchronous transactions. These are the concepts of web services that the experts agree will ultimately be the most important, but for which the standards, protocols, and tools don't yet exist. Doug Kaye explains these missing-piece challenges, describes the ultimate solutions, and helps the reader develop a web-services strategy for his or her organization.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part 1--Perspectives
Chapter 1--Evolution
Chapter 2--Web Services
Chapter 3--The Hype
Chapter 4--The Missing Pieces
Chapter 5--Critical Components
Part 2--Concepts
Chapter 6--Application Integration
Chapter 7--Objects and Web Services
Chapter 8--Service-Oriented Architectures
Chapter 9--Asynchronous Messaging
Chapter 10--Loose Coupling
Part 3--Technologies
Chapter 11--Transactions
Chapter 12--Orchestration
Chapter 13--Security-The Challenges
Chapter 14--Security-The Solutions
Chapter 15--Deployment Options
Part 4--Strategies
Chapter 16--Strategies and Projects
Chapter 17--Simple Projects
Chapter 18--The Timing of Complex Projects
Chapter 19--Service-Level Agreements
Chapter 20--Providing External Services
Appendix--A Strategic Checklist
Notes
Index
About the Author