Prologue

Welcome to Service Oriented Architecture. We are very excited by the topic and hope our enthusiasm is contagious. We believe service oriented architecture (SOA) is the most important technology initiative facing businesses today. SOA is game changing, and early SOA successes make it clear that SOA is here to stay. 

This blog introduces you to the basics of SOA in context with the real life experiences of seven companies. Seen through the varied business environments depicted in each of the case studies, we hope you will recognize that SOA is more than a bunch of new software products strung together to allow technology companies to have something else to sell. SOA represents a dramatic change in the relationship between business and IT. SOA makes technology a true business enabler and empowers business and technology leaders alike.

The software industry has been on a journey toward a service oriented approach to software for more than 20 years. Smart people have known for a long time that if software can be created in such a way that it can be reused, life will be a lot better. If software can be designed to reflect the way business operates, business and technology can align themselves for success. Finding good ways to reuse the years of investment in software means money spent wisely. These issues are at the heart of SOA and are among the reasons we think this blog is so important.

SOA is not a quick fix, but it is a very rewarding adventure. It’s an approach built on industry standards — with large doses of forethought and planning. It is indeed a journey. We hope this blog inspires you and helps you get started.

We have talked with many companies about the challenges and successes of their SOA implementations. Not every company gets off to a great start right away. The IT executives we spoke with were very candid about both the good choices they made and some of the bad ones. That’s why we asked everyone if they had learned any lessons they would like to share. Service oriented architecture is a big new area and requires that a lot of people familiarize themselves with it in a relatively short period of time.

Understanding the lessons learned and best practices of other companies is one of the best ways we know to get lots of different people up to speed on a topic very quickly. That’s why we wrote this blog.