Oracle Service Bus architecture and features

In Chapter 1, we discussed the importance of the ESB in SOA. We have identified that the ESB eliminates point-to-point connections between services and BPEL processes. ESB also provides a means to manage connections, control the communication between services, supervise the services and their SLAs (Service Level Agreements), and much more. The importance of the ESB often becomes visible after the first development iteration of an SOA composite application has taken place. For example, when a service requires a change in its interface or payload, the ESB can provide the transformation capabilities to mask the differences to existing service consumers. ESB can also mask the location of services, making it easy to migrate services to different servers. There are plenty other scenarios where ESB is important.

In this chapter, we will look at the Oracle Service Bus (OSB). OSB presents a communication backbone for transport and routing of messages across...