(2003-11-10) Udell Message Bus

Jon Udell on the use of a Message Bus architecture in a Web Services environment for Application Integration. If XML messages are the transaction currency of a service-oriented network, the argument runs, then there are going to be astronomical numbers of messages. While the messages are in flight, we'll need new kinds of dynamic message stores to index, search, monitor, and correlate them... McKinsey partner, Chris Barlow, described how DeltaAirlines has radically reorganized its application portfolio. Point-to-point integration is out; Event Driven communication across a common message bus is in. When you build a system this way, message queues are the first and best way to take the pulse of its real-time state... Frank Martinez makes a crucial distinction between message data and message Meta Data. In the realm of Web Services, it's the difference between SOAP bodies and SOAP headers. The bodies eventually land in an operational Data Store, the headers often don't. Yet the headers define the Context of the message: who (or what) is sending it and why.