JISC

Education, like other sectors, has become heavily reliant on ICT systems for the efficient running of all aspects of its operations. In common with other sectors these systems have often developed in varying degrees of isolation across differing parts of the campus and although many of these systems were not originally designed to interact with each other there is increasing interest in allowing them to be integrated to provide what are known as 'enterprise-level systems' with complex cross-dependencies.  

 In industry, the main way of achieving this level of integration is increasingly through the uptake of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA)—a set of key principles rather than a specific technology. There is now a buzz around SOA and a bandwagon has developed within the industry of vendors, consultants and system integrators, but there is also considerable confusion as to the true meaning of such an approach.

JISC Technology and Standards Watch (JISC TSW) would like to commission a peer-reviewed report on Service-Oriented Architecture, its relevance to HE/FE, and its likely future direction. Anyone interested in becoming involved in the report should read the full open call, available from the TechWatch website: the TechWatch website.