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SAP NetWeaver
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Navigating this guide will help you learn answers to questions ranging from the basic (such as what is SOA?) to the complex (such as implementing NetWeaver in particular SAP environments). The tutorial discusses the role of eSOA in NetWeaver and explains how NetWeaver technology and NetWeaver architecture are changing the face of SAP deployment and development. It focuses on the technical components of eSOA and NetWeaver and also associated methodologies, such as Run SAP and business process management (BPM), which allow NetWeaver and eSOA users to maximize the ROI of their SAP investments and to achieve a more flexible, customizable business. Since NetWeaver is at the heart of SAP, all SAP customers must sooner or later come to terms with the NetWeaver platform and use it to best advantage. This training tutorial is designed to help executives, line-of-business managers, CIOs, IT developers, SOA architects and consultants understand the composition, features, benefits and drawbacks of the SAP NetWeaver platform and SAP's eSOA.
Table of contents:
What is SAP NetWeaver? It's difficult to understand what SAP NetWeaver is without understanding what SOA is. It's easy to pardon anyone, even an SOA architect, for not being able to succinctly answer the question: "What is SOA?" Let's start with the basics: SOA is the acronym for service-oriented architecture. As you can see, the concept of a service -- specifically, a Web service -- is a key part of the answer to "What is SOA?" Thus, you should start your journey by reading this definition of Web services and listening to this podcast entitled What is SOA for more detailed background on SOA. Understanding Enterprise SOA One of the best ways of understanding both the technical character and the business value of enterprise SOA is to draw an analogy with digital music. Years ago, making a mix album was a complicated and expensive procedure. For example, you had to buy an entire album to access a single track. Then you had to transfer all the tracks you liked from different albums on to a different recording medium, such as a tape, one by one. After digital music, you can assemble a customized play-list with just a couple of mouse-clicks. In iTunes, for example, you can instantly sort songs by name, popularity, artist and so forth, and buy only the ones you need. You can then place them into a specific order on your iPod, or arrange to have them randomly shuffled. The songs are interoperable with your digital music player and your computer; they are portable across media. If you grasp these concepts, you're on your way to understanding enterprise SOA. Specifically, these are the three interrelated concepts that serve us well in understanding SOA:
Enterprise SOA, usually abbreviated to eSOA, is the term SAP gives to its own SOA tools and technologies. Things start to get complicated here because NetWeaver is also built on SOA principles. Technically, then, NetWeaver is also part of the SOA universe. However, when we talk about eSOA, we're talking about the very bottom-level architecture that makes NetWeaver possible, and manages NetWeaver. Listen to this podcast to understand the SOA architecture within eSOA. That'll go a long way toward helping you understand how SOA is incorporated into specific SAP products. SOA in SAP NetWeaver So what is NetWeaver? Start by thinking of it as application infrastructure, or technology that makes it possible to develop, integrate and customize enterprise applications. Let's simplify that a little bit and, in doing so, explain how NetWeaver leverages SOA. Imagine that you have a set of tiny Lego blocks, as this story of SAP versus Oracle demonstrates. Because every block fits into every other block, you have a flexible method of creating just about anything you want -- and, just as importantly, being able to break off a piece of something and attach it to something else. Now imagine that, instead of Legos, you have something really inflexible -- like a set of large bricks -- with which to work. The bricks have a number of disadvantages. They're not a flexible enough medium to let you really customize your design, and once you build something, you can't easily take it apart again. In NetWeaver, you're working with Legos, not bricks; the SOA in NetWeaver makes this possible. Keep this metaphor in mind, and you'll begin to understand the true power and flexibility of SOA and its potential to support more agile, process-oriented organizations. In IT terms, what you need to know is that any SOA-powered platform solves IT infrastructure problems posed by pre-SOA architectures. SOA architects will be particularly pleased to have this overview of using Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) for business processes, an integral part of the overall NetWeaver experience. For advanced SOA architects, this quiz tests your ESA knowledge. Components in SAP NetWeaver integration Now that we have a better handle on the principles behind NetWeaver and SOA, it's time to survey NetWeaver's components. Because NetWeaver allows you to both integrate and develop applications, let's start the overview with a look at NetWeaver's integration components. They are:
You can read more about how these integration components in NetWeaver map on to specific functionality in this overview of NetWeaver. NetWeaver allows interoperability with IBM WebSphere and Microsoft .NET environments. This doesn't mean that SAP wants you to adopt or retain these technologies. Rather, it is possible to replace WebSphere and replace .NET with NetWeaver. NetWeaver can also allow your organization to create interoperability between Adobe and SAP. This interoperability in NetWeaver could allow you to use Adobe PDFs on the front end (for example, to gather data from partners or customers) and feed the data directly into an SAP system. Components in SAP NetWeaver development If you think of SAP NetWeaver integration components as connectors that allow you to plug pre-existing Lego blocks together, the development components of NetWeaver allow you to make your own Lego blocks. Here are NetWeaver's development components:
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What is SAP NetWeaver?