The IBM Software Reference Architecture is a model for running IT systems that allows you to leverage your existing technology investments and build on them to enable faster integration, automated management, and access to computing power where and when needed through virtualization. It's also referred to as the SOA architecture or platform, and the On Demand Operating Environment. The IBM software products fit into this overall architecture, and are based on open standards, interoperability, and modularity.
The Software Reference Architecture describes a set of capabilities that together bring integration and infrastructure management to your IT solutions. This architecture lets you leverage information, applications, and tools as services in an interoperable, system-independent way. IBM organizes the architecture around ten service capabilities shown in Figure 3.
The IBM software brands play across the various elements of the integration platform, as Figure 4 shows. The IBM software brand capabilities and products deliver integration through this reference architecture. In the Brand Overview section we'll look at each of these brands in a bit more detail.
