Chapter 9: Securing Solutions

 Download CD Content

Introduction

It s unfortunate, but most application solutions are developed without security in mind. This introduces security flaws early in the development cycle that are not always caught. There are many reasons for this. For example, it may be the result of developers trying to learn the specific application domain and being unaware of how to adequately protect the systems and data. What is often interesting is that during a standard development cycle, at least one, if not more, application prototypes is done. The purpose of these is to provide possible answers about a possible approach to solving the business issues, but often the last thing developers worry about is application security.

As applications are completed and deployed, it becomes apparent that security is more than just adding a username and password screen. Security issues can actually be magnified through the deployment of a distributed system that follows SOA design patterns. The multitude of services and possible interactions can increase the difficulty of developing a secure solution. In a service-oriented environment, each of the individual service components is capable of requiring security. This can easily increase the complexity of a given application as the services and components are scaled across multiple application domains and enterprise infrastructures .

There are a variety of ways that security can be implemented within the types of applications that we have covered. InfoPath and the .NET Framework are two of the most important aspects, and each provides a piece of a cohesive strategy that if properly designed can effectively secure and protect your service-based infrastructure. This chapter focuses on ways security should be implemented within these types of applications and many of the specific concerns that you should address when developing distributed applications.