Many of Layer 7’s customers have already made the move into the Cloud. These companies have benefited greatly from our expertise in governance for SOA. This is because SOA governance is directly applicable to the Cloud. Our white paper The Value of Application Service Governance for Cloud Computing provides a detailed explanation of this connection.

Written by internationally-respected SOA/Cloud thought leader David Linthicum, in collaboration with our own Scott Morrison, this white paper outlines how the structure of SOA – services distributed across departments and locations – is at the core of all Cloud computing. So, governance principles that are effective in SOA also work in the Cloud.

To learn more, download The Value of Application Service Governance for Cloud Computing.

This summer, we presented a webinar that addressed these specific issues. Created in association with Red Hat, Security, Governance & Integration in a Cloud-Connected World provided deep insight into how enterprises can address integration, management and security challenges arising from technologies like SOA and Cloud.

With input from Pierre Fricke, Director of SOA Products at Red Hat, as well as Jaime Ryan, our Partner Solutions Architect, this webinar proposed combining an enterprise service bus with a SOA Gateway to create a secure, standards-based system for governing integrations that cross organizational boundaries. You can stream the full recording in the player below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol8YO9F3O7k&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

In this talk, I explore how governance is changing in the API world. I even do a live OAuth demonstration using people, instead of computers. Unlike the classic “swim lane” diagrams that only show how OAuth works, this one also teaches you why the protocol operates as it does. (If you want to skip directly to the OAuth component, it begins at around 22 minutes

According to Gartner: “All vendors considered in this Magic Quadrant have articulated a cloud strategy, and have provided evidence that they have started to execute it.” Notably, the report also states that “SOA governance in the cloud also overlaps consistently with API management, the combination of services enabling organizations to deploy, intermediate, govern, catalog and secure public Web APIs based on Web-oriented architecture (WOA) principles, mainly for the use of mobile applications.” The expansion of SOA technologies and governance models across the Web and into the Cloud is central to Layer 7’s business model, as we continue to develop best-of-breed solutions for SOA governance, API management and Cloud integration.

And here’s some more good news. We are offering our blog readers complimentary access to this valuable research report. Simply click here to register for access to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SOA Governance Technologies 2011. For more information on the Magic Quadrant and Layer 7’s inclusion in the report, you can read our press release.

This white paper is also a vital document for us because it outlines the governance philosophy underpinning all our Cloud solutions. It’s increasingly true that everybody wants to be in the Cloud but a move to the Cloud introduces new security risks and may compromise traditional IT governance. That’s where our Cloud governance philosophy comes in.

The way we see it, Cloud governance is a logical evolution of existing SOA governance best practices. It offers a way to assert control over both internal and external applications and data. This white paper should be enough to convince you that, using Cloud governance, the widely reported challenges of Cloud computing can be met.

Download Steer Safely into the Clouds