1. Service-as-a-Software, (the other SaaS)
Jean-Jacques Dubray, Ph.D.
Founder, Convergence Modeling LLC
@metapgmr
jean-jacques.dubray@convergencemodeling.com

2. Joshua Robin, Mass DOT
•
In 2010, Joshua Robin, from
the Massachusetts Department
of Transportation delivered a
seminal talk at eGov 2.0 2010
detailing what happened when
the DOT started sharing its
data (schedules and real time
data) as APIs
•
Within hours developers
started to build apps
•
Lots of apps, for different
groups of people and usage
patterns

3. A Profound Transformation is Happening …

4. Operating System
Users[Roles]
Apps
Operating
System
Onboard
Files
The role of an operating System it to govern a (small) number of
outcomes: add user, apps, files, login user, start app, …

5. (Physical) Service
Users[Roles]
Actions
Search Book Pay …
AirBnB
Rooms
Onboard

6. Service
An orchestration of resources and skills that governs a
consistent outcome of activities
Software
A set of machine-readable instructions

7. Service-as-a-Software
Apps
Actions
Users
Search Book Pay …
AirBnB
Rooms
Onboard

8. Service-as-a-Software
is about enabling the consumption of a (physical) service
from a set of machine-readable instructions

9. Why is Service-as-a-Software so important today?
Context,
We never consume a service without a purpose…
the contexts in which services are consumed is nearly endless
and today, end users expect that they will be able
to consume services in the context of the
activities they want to accomplish

10. Search is no longer “cool”,
in fact it is highly inefficient
Compare how we consume services today…
search
1
2
Activity:
I want to visit
Sydney
actor
purchase
travel 3
do
4

11. Commerce is being Integrated with the
Activities People do
select QoS
search
1
A
2
pay
actor
3
travel
4
Activity:
I want to visit
Sydney for a
week in December
do
B
purchase
C
reserve
D
book

12. Getty Images Connect APIs
Photographers
Media
Advertising Agencies
Users
Actions Search Buy Download …
Onboard
Pictures
Source: Connect by Getty Images

13. News Writers can Consume Getty Images’
Service Directly from the Activity they Perform
Service-as-a-Software
write article
search
1
actor
S
2
D
Activity:
select As a journalist, I want to K
picture spend my time writing
A
B
purchase
news articles
3
publish
Source: Connect by Getty Images

14. This Transformation has Profound Economic
Implications
Product variants adapted for
all dimensions
Sales of variants per
dimension
Sales
Sales of single product
across all dimensions
dimensions

15. APIs are as important as Business Processes
(once were)
Core
Context
Differentiation
Standard
Innovation
Commoditized
Mission Critical
Enabling
Goeffrey Moore: Core vs Context

16. How did we get here ?

17. What just happened?
2007-2010
•
Libraries
Black boxes
•
Limited Data Communications
Good Enough
•
Business Integration
APIs + Apps
•
Monolithic Architecture
Composite (OAuth)
•
Difficult to Scale
Cloud
•
Business Model
Monetization

18. Anyone Remembers
Numerical Recipes?
If there is a single dominant theme in this
book, it is that practical methods of
numerical computation can be
simultaneously efficient, clever, and —
important — clear.
!
The alternative viewpoint, that efficient
computational methods must necessarily
be so arcane and complex as to be useful
only in "black box" form, we firmly reject
Source: Wikipedia

19. Black Boxes or
Libraries?
•
As it turned out, the 1980s
were fertile years for the "black
box" side, yielding important
integrated environments like
MATLAB and Mathematica
!
!
•
Eventually the authors of
Numerical Recipe recognized
that the book was increasingly
valued for their explanatory
text than their code examples
Source: Wikipedia

20. The Web vs The Fallacies of Distributed Computing
1. The network is reliable
Web connections are brief
2. Latency is zero
Web connections are good enough
with notable exceptions (e.g. HFT)
3. Bandwidth is infinite
Web is good enough
4. Network is Secure
Web may no longer be good enough
5. Topology doesn’t change
Topology issues are hidden by HTTP
6. There is one administrator
Web is (mostly ;-) decentralized
7. Transport Cost is zero
Web is good enough
8. The Network is homogeneous
Finally, yes, the network is!
Source: Tim Bray, 2009

21. From Business Integration … to APIs
•
EDIFACT (1987)
•
Convergence between UN and US/ANSI (UN/EDIFACT)
•
syntax rules to structure data
•
interactive exchange protocol (I-EDI)
•
standard messages (multi-country, multi-industry)

22. Source: David Webber & Anthony Dutton

23. Source: John Yunker

24. Computation of the
status of a Business
Transaction Activity
Source: ebXML BP 2.0.4

26. … APIs

27. App3
App4
App5
App6
2007
App2
Service Interface
App1
Service Interface
Monolithic
Software Architecture has Undergone a
Tectonic Shift towards Composite Applications
Composite
2013
ServiceA
ServiceB
App
ServiceC

28. Monetization is the “invisible hand” …
… it is not just about distributed computing
Service-as-a-Software
search
Activity:
As a journalist, I want to
spend my time writing
news articles
S
D
K
A
B
purchase

29. Are we there yet?

30. There is still lots of Technical Problems to Solve
Mike Amundsen: How to Create Reusable APIs?
•
Stop mapping semantics to protocols
•
Stop hiding update & query rules in human-readable
documentation
•
Stop requiring devs to be protocol gurus
•
Stop making everyone use the same object model
•
Stop describing services as single instances
•
Stop baking workflow into client code
•
Stop breaking others people's code
•
Stop making client devs re-code & re-deploy at random
•
Stop adding single points of failure
•
Stop pretending the Web defies the laws of probability and physics

31. Workflow
Semantics
Object Model
Protocols
Message
Network
Architecture

32. Where are the hot spots?
Monetization
API Gateways
Management
SDKs
Apps
Composition / Orchestration
Hypermedia
Security
Reliable
ad hoc
Messaging
Transactions
ad hoc
JSON, JSON-Schema
Messaging
Swagger, WADL, RAML …
Description
HTTP
Protocol

33. Four Principles to Succeed at SOA -> APIs
1
1.
Service Interface shall be decoupled from Service Implementation
2
2.
All Business Logic shall be normalized
3
3.
Changing a service shall be easy
• Changes shall be hidden to service consumers until they are ready
• Changes shall be easy to consume when the consumer is ready
4.
4
Service Versioning shall be based on Compatibility

34. The “Platform” will
come into Play
End user
buys apps, goods
trusts
stores, shares
data
Apps
buys assets
3rd Party
Developer
trusts
Platform
Operator
utilizes
end-user
data
Actions
trusts
trusts
Search Book Pay …
utilizes end user data
(e.g music lists, eBooks, pictures…)
Service Owner
Rooms
utilizes
end-user data
Resource Owner
(e.g. Digital Asset
Producer,...)

35. Conclusion

36. !
We Need to Revisit the Way we Think about Services
•
Think Service-as-a-Software
•
Operating System
•
Services govern Outcomes
On boarding
Think about services in the broader context of the “Platform”
•
•
•
Platform Oriented Architecture
•
Activities vs search
•
Think Topology
• Technology enablers like APIs, Mobile Computing, and Cloud are redefining our societies
• Education: MOOCs
• Commerce: Zulily
• Presence (Social Media)
• …
•
We are at the onset of a massive Economic Transformation
• Accessible to every human, in the most remote villages
• With the potential to optimize and enrich everything we do