Reviews for Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services (Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl)

1. editor ;-) ?

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2009

   Obviously on the matter of SOA etc, everybody knows Erl is one of the gurus and this is a dense and interesting book (dense for me because I have no background in this and used it as an intro: in that it is more or less ok).
   What I fail to understand is this common mistake by authors who pick up examples in French and make language mistakes (pages 286 and 369 for example). It is surely a minor point but this is ridiculous, can't Prentice-Hall afford a native speaker to review this ?
   

2. Excellent theoretical introduction to SOA

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2006

   After being hearing all kinds of hype about SOA all over the place, I decided to take a plunge into this apparently new paradigm. I have to say that although I was previously rather fluent with xml and related technologies, Erl's book gave a sufficiently deep insight into such a complex matter. Maybe, being a .Net practitioner, I would have relished some .Net oriented approach, but I have to admit that Erl's neutral approach is much better, allowing you to see the whole picture without marring you with technology details pertaining to a concrete implementation. All in all, an excellent buy and a book you'll sure revisit after having read it, for concepts that may blur with time in your memory. Recommended.
   The only thing is that some of the drawings are a bit too obvious, and big, and could have been done away with so the book could be 20 or 30 pages less.
   
   Buying the other soa book by Erl soon.

3. Comprehensive and relevant

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2004

   Erl's book is magnificent. Most software developers and architects will be aware to some degree or another of the hype surrounding Service-Oriented Architectures, but relatively few people will actually be doing it and even the ones who are will be asking themeselves if they are doing it properly. The vast majority of software developers/architects will be asking themselves why and how? Erl answers these questions very comprehensively. Erl compares and contrasts common application and enterprise integration architectures and demonstrates why a SOA approach is a viable alternative. He then provides a series of best practice guides to show you exactly how. This is the first book you should buy to get up to speed in this field. It is technology agnostic and is as relevant to the J2EE community as its is to the .NET community.