Catching up with Miko Matsumura, VP and Deputy CTO, Software AG WebMethods, is always interesting. Miko likes to pontificate on the industry, and his current pontifications are around SOA, entropy, and IT funding. Miko informs us that "the thermodynamic definition of entropy is the energy within a system that's unavailable for work." The general idea is that as we build IT systems project by project, which is the way they are funded, as time goes on we end up with a lot of code which the organization has expended energy and dollars on, but which is no long usable to do work. Over time, entropy in IT systems increases. The general idea is that if we adopt a SOA approach to building systems, we create more of reusable code and less entropy, making more of the IT investment available for new work on an ongoing basis.
Miko contends the tipping point of SOA is all about the way we fund projects,and his systems entropy analogy is striking a chord with those who hold the purse strings. Miko believes that when we start talking in terms of return on assets for IT funding the corporate coffers will start to fling open to welcome in the new age of SOA. The part of the entropy analogy that I like is that it is not just about reuse. It also alludes to releasing blocked energy for new innovation. Miko sums up his tipping point theory as follows: "The thing that I think the system is sort of reaching towards is: when can we decrease the total cost of maintaining all of the technology systems and when can we really start innovating on that boundary between technology and business that really supports new ways to consume the things we already have."
Listen to or download the 10 min. podcast below:
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