Service Virtualization is one of
the common categories of patterns for connectivity solutions.
The Service Virtualization patterns provide
loose coupling between services by providing additional levels
of direction through an Enterprise Service Bus.
These patterns also address the requirements of mediation (for example, routing,
protocol conversion, data transformation, and logging) between services
when addressing connectivity requirements in a service-oriented architecture.
Service virtualization patterns are typically used to address a number of distinct
requirements, including provision of:
- Loose coupling by presenting existing services as virtual
services on the Enterprise Service Bus.
- A provider facade to include transformation and enrichment.
- A provider facade to provide a standard interface
for non-standard services.
- Standard service management utilities, for example, security,
logging, monitoring, and charging.
The following diagram illustrates an example of a Service Virtualization
scenario: