Upcoming SOA Architect Summits

I've been working with a number of SME's from across IBM in updating the SOA Architect Summit. We had our first delivery with the new content earlier this week in Sacramento. All reports in so far indicate that it was a very successful day - content and speakers were great, and customers that attended found that it was an excellent decision to attend.

We have two more Summits scheduled for the quarter - one in Ottawa (Feb 24th) and another in Pittsburgh (Mar 10th). Additional summits will be scheduled at additional locations world-wide through the remainder of the year.

The links above will guide you to the registration and agenda pages for the two upcoming deliveries. Note that we've also created a customizable agenda for the event - so you'll see that there are some differences in the sessions offered and flow at each location.

The event is free to attend - and the content focuses on discussing the aspects of architecting a successful SOA solution within an enterprise. This is an educational offering first and foremost - our goal is to help highlight the issues, nuances and details an architect will deal with in creating their solutions.

Lee.

Updates – Impact, PBE, and RSC

A quick post with some updates on a few topics. Returned from Impact about a week ago, conference went very well. Attended some very good sessions (favorite was a session on Cloud), had some time to reconnect with some friends and past acquaintances, met some new folks, and had a chance to connect with some folks that I’d only previously met over the phone.

My reward upon returning from the conference was a deadline for the PBE book that I’ve been writing. Draft of the manuscript was due on Friday – and we managed to hit the date (although it was a long day). The rough draft of the manuscript is now with the publisher and should be sent out to our review panel shortly. Anxious to hear the feedback and comments from the reviewers. In the meantime, we have some supporting artifacts (case study model, codes, patterns) and the PBE practice that need further development. So won’t be sitting about waiting on feedback – too much to do.

We will be delivering a session at the upcoming Rational Software Conference that will provide a sneak peek on content from the book. If you are attending the conference, I hope to see you at the session – and please ask questions and let us know what you think of the material. I’ll be posting the ppt from the conference here after it has been delivered.

I’m also organizing a delivery of a SOA Architect Summit at the Rational conference. We’ll be delivering the session all day on Sunday, May 31st. I’ve arranged for a great roster of speakers – and am looking forward to the delivery and networking. Should be a great educational day – and will be the first delivery with updated materials. If you’ve already registered for the conference, there is no additional charge for the summit, it is being sponsored by the WebSphere team. A note has been sent out to conference attendees with details on how to sign up – if you run into any issues, please let me know.

Lee.

Impact 2009

Impact 2009 is fast approaching, just a few weeks away at this point. The complete list of sessions is posted along with details about all of the customers that will be presenting. Customer list is amazing – with over 300 customers sharing details on their successes. I’ve been to quite a few conferences, don’t recall ever seeing so many customers presenting. Provides all of us with a great opportunity to hear about the many ways in which people have leveraged SOA to solve real world problems – along with the challenges they had to overcome along the way. What worked well? What didn’t? What unique and interesting problems did that tackle with SOA? What innovative ideas did they bring to bear? Its amazing the solutions that we come up with as real world constraints are put in place and we need to find solutions that no else has yet come up with. And what better way for us to figure out our next solution, than to learn from the experiences of others?

In this economy, having such large customer participation speaks volumes to the success that people are achieving with SOA.

In regards to the sessions, whether looking for bleeding edge, leading edge or mainstream solutions – the list of topics covered is impressive. Best practices, experts, real world experiences – covering the range of topics – SOA, Cloud, BPM, Web2.0, Mashups, REST, Governance, Reuse, Connectivity, Integration, Patterns, and the list goes on.

Also, the Tech Zones, sound like a great way to dig into the details behind SOA, CICS, Java-Web 2.0, Messaging, and Business Process Management. Meet some of the product managers, architects and other tech leaders in these areas. If you get a chance to spend some time with one of the STSMs, DEs or other technical leaders – grab it. To earn these designations within IBM, the criteria are stringent and the people that achieve these ranks are not only impressive in terms of background, but usually great people in general.

The other big attraction for me is the networking. Meeting up with some of the Tech leaders from IBM is something that I look forward to. As mentioned, they usually all not only have great insights and experiences to share, but are great people as well. And of course, I’m looking forward to meeting more of our customers. Sitting in on the customer sessions will be interesting – but it’s always a better to be able to have informal chats about what’s going on and where things are headed.

I look forward to bumping into many at the conference. At a minimum, I’ll be working the Smart Work pedestal at the Solution Center during the week. If you get a chance, stop by and say hello.

If you haven’t yet registered, better hurry, time’s running out.

SOA Architect Summit

One more resource that I wanted to point out today is the SOA Architect Summit. These events are delivered worldwide - and provide a great opportunity to hear from some technical leaders from within IBM on topics that would interest the SOA Architect community.

The next Summit is being held on the 29th in Minneapolis. If you're interested in attending, you can still register.

Lee.