ZapThink today announces the availability of a series of SOA training and certification courses in Johannesburg, South Africa, run in conjunction with realIRM. ZapThink will run its four-day Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) Boot Camp, providing in-depth, hands-on training and certification on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and taught by notable SOA expert Jason Bloomberg as well as a one-day LZA renewal course and ZapThink's popular SOA Governance Training & Certification courses. The details for each are listed below.

"Companies are finding it difficult to learn what they really need to know from vendor-centric conferences and training," said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink, LLC. "IT professionals want to learn from their peers about what it really takes to put together a well-designed SOA, and desire third-party credentials to assert their SOA knowledge. The Licensed ZapThink Analyst boot camps give Enterprise Architecture practitioners the SOA education and credentials they've been waiting for."

In ZapThink's four-day LZA SOA boot camp training course, attendees will get hands-on experience and expertise in how to implement the latest SOA best practices and methods. Learn about Service modeling, Service domains, SOA infrastructure planning, SOA testing, SOA Quality, Governance, and Management, developing a SOA Roadmap, SOA ROI and Business Planning, SOA Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and metrics, SOA security and performance optimization, SOA policy management, Composite Services and Business Process, Service-Oriented Business Applications (SOBA), and Mashups. Hear about notable SOA security case studies and get hands-on guidance in making SOA work. And, once attendees complete this course, they will become a credentialed Licensed ZapThink Architect.

The ZapThink LZA SOA training and certification program offers the following benefits:

• An annual credential that allows ZapThink to endorse individual enterprise architects as having specific SOA skills
• Posting onto an LZA Directory that enables companies to research and locate architects to assist with their SOA-specific needs
• Opportunity to contribute to ZapThink's online research and content
• Participation in exclusive annual LZA-only conferences, events and activities.

In ZapThink's two-day SOA Governance workshop, attendees will learn in-depth, practical SOA governance methodologies, techniques, and approaches in ways that are not specific to the particular technology du-jour or an individual vendor implementation. The SOA Governance training and certification course is led by skilled instructors who not only have architectural and governance expertise, but also know-how in how to apply SOA governance technologies and frameworks into practice. For attendees that already have an LZA credential, this course adds a SOA Governance endorsement that will further add to their knowledge and capabilities. The SOA governance course fills the unmet need for both SOA governance training as well as certification.

Details of the courses offered are as follows:

• The LZA SOA Boot Camp will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 31-September 4, 2009
• One-day LZA Renewal course will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 7, 2009
• The two-day SOA Governance Training and Certification course will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from September 8-9, 2009

For more information and to register for the above events, please visit http://www.zapthink.com/eventreg.html. Early bird discounts are available for a limited time. Seats are limited to only 45 people per LZA boot camp, and ZapThink expects certain boot camp dates and locations to sell out.