Leveraging Information and Intelligence

I pointed out in my “other blog” that there are really two camps: SOA Old School and SOA New School, and there seems to be a chasm between the two that keeps growing.

“Old school SOA vendors are those with "legacy" integration or application development solutions that "SOA-tized" their stuff, basically adding Web services interfaces, enhanced security, etc.. I've been here before, you're working with an existing product and existing customers, and suddenly a new wave comes along, you have to keep up, thus you add another layer onto your existing product to make it a bit more acceptable to the market, and also maintain backward compatibility with your existing customer base. It's not easy.”

In fact many are finding that the more traditional *EAI technology is coming up short when you consider the new complexities of SOA. I think that SOA is being defined by the marketing machines in the well funded upstarts, and the older guys are finding that they are being made obsolete. No matter if it’s perception, or reality. In the world of SOA, it really does not seem to matter right now. They hype cycle is raging.

So, is this a trend? Are the older integration guys with old products, thousands of customers, and yes, gulp, profitable, able to keep up with the young Turks who seem to be defining the market now? Tough to say, but it does not look good when considering the current set of events, including a growing market and declining or slow growing sales with a few of the players.

Perhaps the core issue is innovation. While a commodity in the newer venture funding startups that don’t need to declare an EPS, are just cost to the larger companies, and thus to be avoided. Cost that must be managed, perhaps at their peril, and thus you end up in a an bit of a death spiral…meaning you can’t spend the money because sales are lacking, and sales are lacking because you can’t spend the money, (sounds like I’ve lived this before, eh?).

The reality is that these guys have a clear opportunity; however they will have to act more like a startup, perhaps beating down The Street on EPS, and funding higher-risk, by higher-value projects. No guts, no glory. I’ve learned that over the years.

* While I’m using the term “Traditional EAI” here, I really don’t like that term to describe a set of technology, but when in Rome… Indeed, EAI is an architectural notion, defining the approaches, methodologies, and technologies behind information system synergy, and the basis for modern SOA notions. Just had to get that off my chest.