Managing Virtualized Services
A virtualized service is a service that runs onwebMethods Mediator and acts as the consumer-facing proxy for a service that runs elsewhere on the network. You can create a virtualized service for a SOAP-based Web service, a REST service or an XML service. A virtualized service provides a layer of abstraction between the service consumer and the service provider, and promotes loose coupling by providing location, protocol and format independence between the consuming application and the provider service.
For example, virtualized services enable you to:
Move native services to other physical addresses or switch providers without affecting existing consumer applications.
Bridge differences (e.g., transport differences, message structure differences) between the capabilities of a consuming application and the requirements of a native service.
Block portions of a service interface from certain consuming applications (that is, expose selected portions of the native service to certain consumers).
Provide access to different versions of a service through a single endpoint.
You use CentraSite to define virtualized services and to deploy them on specified Mediators. After you deploy a virtualized service, you use CentraSite as a “dashboard” from which to view performance metrics and other run-time data relating to the usage of a virtualized service.
