Service Oriented Architecture

(SOA) is a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. With the Smart SOA approach, you can find value at every stage of the SOA continuum, from departmental projects to enterprise-wide initiatives.
SOA is best approached as individual projects - each of which bring your business greater flexibility and service orientation. Successful SOA adoption is done incrementally stressing the importance of starting small, and scaling appropriately. IBM can help you identify what SOA projects make the most sense for you. For example, we have a brochure called "Five SOA projects that can pay for themselves in six months". Regardless of whether you're looking to SOA for an enterprise-level project, a tactical technology-level project or something in between, IBM can help you lay out a roadmap that makes sense for you. We have workshops available free of charge which can bring together IBM's SOA architects and subject matter experts and your IT staff to help find projects to boost your business flexibility with quick financial return. Send a note to soa@us.ibm.com for more information.To get started quickly with SOA, you need to select an initial project that focuses on a particular business opportunity that can be completed in a reasonably short timeframe. The SOA Entry points (PDF, 438KB) are project areas that have been shown to provide business value in a timely manner. Each Entry Point provides a key SOA related solution:
People - collaboration improving productivity by giving employees and partners the ability to create a personalized, consolidated way to interact with others.
Process - optimize and deploy processes on the fly and monitor the effectiveness of the altered processes.
Information - improve business insight and reduce risk by using trusted information services delivered in line and in context.
Reuse - newly created and reusable services are the building blocks of SOA. Reuse gives users flexibility through reduced cycle time and elimination of duplicate processes.
Connectivity - although, in the past, connectivity has been a requirement, SOA brings new levels of flexibility to these linkages. The connectivity provided by SOA has distinct value on its own and as a building block for additional SOA initiatives.

The Society of Actuaries

(SOA) is the largest professional organization dedicated to serving 22,000 actuarial members and the public in the United States, Canada and worldwide. The SOA's vision is for actuaries to be the leading professionals in the measurement and management of risk.
The SOA is committed to:
Education–Providing basic education in the fundamental principles of actuarial science, advanced education, professional development and continuing education for practicing actuaries.
Research–Conducting research to develop studies of historical experience and techniques for projections into the future, analyzing the actuarial aspects of public policy issues and providing the foundation for further expansion of the profession.
The Profession–Promoting high standards of professional competence and conduct within the actuarial profession.
SOA members typically align themselves within one of the following practice areas:
Finance–including risk management and dynamic financial models
Health–including managed care, Medicare, healthcare, providers, payers and premiums
Life Insurance
Retirement/Pension
Special Interest–areas including investment, long–term care, international and regulatory
As the needs of businesses and individuals have evolved, so have the contributions of SOA membership and actuaries everywhere:
When the Social Security System was formed in the late 1930s and pension systems were developed during the next several decades, actuaries were heartily involved in this burgeoning area.
As modern health insurance policies began to be issued in the middle of the 20th century, the skills of actuaries were required and today, actuaries are heavily involved in disease modeling.
As lifestyle improvements became important, consumers demanded credit for these healthier lifestyles, which led to actuaries helping develop preferred life insurance credits for non-smokers.
The diversification of many types of businesses led to organizations having much larger and wider-ranging risk profiles than ever before. These risks encompass personnel, insurance, financial, economic and legal issues. Due to their quantitative and qualitative skill set, actuaries are leaders in analyzing these risks, which is known as enterprise risk management (ERM).
Just as the Baby Boom generation turns 60, current retirement systems are not sustainable. Actuaries are leading the way in developing a framework around 21st century retirement systems.

Company Overview

SOA Software is a leading provider of unified SOA governance, Cloud and API Management products that enable organizations to plan, build, and run enterprise services and Open APIs. The world’s largest companies including Bank of America, Pfizer, and Verizon use SOA Software products to accelerate their adoption of SOA and transform their businesses.
The revolution of service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been with us for a decade. The technology has matured as adoption remains strong throughout large enterprises. More than ever, businesses and government agencies are using standards-based software for interoperation of disparate systems. As Web services proliferate, however, the requirement for strong SOA governance solutions becomes all the more urgent. We address this critical market need, enabling organizations to be successful in planning, building, and running enterprise Web services, SOA, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) applications. The market for such integrated SOA governance automation software has been estimated to be in excess of $4 billion.
Customers use SOA Software products to accelerate their adoption of SOA and cloud services, and the resulting productivity gains and cost reductions. The company’s products provide Unified SOA and Cloud Services Governance that provides a complete SOA infrastructure for security, management, governance, and mediation ensuring the security, reliability, and ease of development of service-oriented business applications. The company provides the industry’s fastest and most scalable solution for platform-independent SOA governance, the critical element that enables large customers to connect and control SOA components from multiple vendors.
Products:


We are the only company providing a comprehensive integrated SOA governance automation solution comprised of our Portfolio Manager™, Repository Manager™, Policy Manager™, and Service Manager™ products. This product set enables SOA governance, SOA security and SOA Management of services across the complete service lifecycle, from planning through development and production deployment. Our breakthrough SOLA™ solution makes Web services governable on a Mainframe SOA platform. Our approach ensures the security, reliability, performance and ease of development of service-oriented business applications. With SOA Software, you build the right services, build them the right way, and then assure that your services are behaving correctly. Our products allow you to connect and control SOA platform components, including enterprise service buses (ESBs) from multiple vendors.
Our latest solution is Atmosphere, which provides a secure, robust platform that companies can use to share their APIs with the growing developer community. Atmosphere manages, monitors and secures companies’ APIs ensuring that they deliver the level of service customers and partners require; the security of corporate and customer information and assets; and the integrity of the corporate brand.
News Highlights:


SOA Software has been designated as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for “Integrated SOA Governance Technology Sets,” and the “Forrester Wave: SOA Service Life-Cycle Management.” SOA Software products have been certified to work with IBM WebSphere, IBM Rational and IBM Tivoli products, Microsoft, RedHat/JBoss, Oracle, Tibco and SAP SOA solutions. In 2011, the company received the Gold ISV partner designation from Microsoft, and Advanced Partner status from IBM and RedHat/JBoss. SOA Software has been the recipient of numerous industry awards, including SD Times, CODiE, Red Herring 100, InfoWorld, Hot Companies, Deloitte Fast 500, AlwaysOn Global 250, and Network Products. SOA Software has made a number of strategic acquisitions over the years, integrating Blue Titan, Flamenco Networks, and LogicLibrary. The latter facilitated the release of its Repository Manager and Portfolio Manager product families.
Location


SOA Software’s global headquarters are in Los Angeles, CA. SOA Software has US offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles reporting to US regional offices in NY, Chicago and Los Angeles. SOA Software has EMEA headquarters in London.
Experienced Team


The company's management team comprises executives and managers drawn From Fortune 500 companies, many of whom are entrepreneurs who have had successful exits in the past.
Investors


SOA Software is a privately held company backed by leading investors including:
Redpoint Ventures
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Palisades Ventures
Paladin Capital Group
Navigation Capital Partners
Partners


SOA Software has built a highly successful domestic and international partnership program based on four broad categories: Platform, Technology, Consulting, and Resellers/Distributors. SOA Software Platform partners include:
Microsoft
SAP
IBM
JBoss
Oracle