At this week's Open Group Enterprise Architecture conference conference, I had the opportunity to join a vigorous panel discussion in which we performed a "reality check" on the state of SOA. We were joined by moderator Eric Knorr of InfoWorld, along with Tony Baer (onStrategies), David Linthicum, Tom Morgan (AutoDesk) and Chris Harding (Open Group).
Members of the panel examined the matter of SOA efforts getting stuck, or whether a "trough of disillusionment" had set in. Our panel also explored SOA's uncertain relationship with other disciplines. It was agreed, for example, that business process management is a key element of SOA and visa-versa. However, we also agreed that there is still a wide chasm between the two. Tom Morgan observed that while his organization, AutoDesk, has had a far-reaching SOA effort underway for a number of years now, they "punted" on applying BPM to the effort.
The panel also discussed the issues that linger around governance, especially in the areas of registry and repository. Tony Baer observed that there were still too many issues at the metadata level, and vendors keep pushing registry/repository as a panacea for governance.
Mashups and Web 2.0 are another area colliding with SOA. Dave Linthicum stated that mashups are, indeed, a viable part of SOA taking place within organizations. However, Eric Knorr said he has heard many organizations are not keen on letting data in or out of the corporate firewall.
SOA can work hand in hand with data management, and Tom pointed out that AutoDesk has been very effectively employing SOA-based services to pull, rationalize, and cleanse customer support data from across the enterprise.
Prior to the panel, David Linthicum delivered the keynote for the Open Group event, issuing a warning that all too often, we're still engaging in SOA for SOA's sake. SOA proponents need to redouble efforts to emphasize the business case, and de-emphasize the technology aspect, he said. "It all boils down to architecture." Still, he said, the reuse inherent in SOA can be made to work, and projects where CEOs can see demonstrable value -- such as a real-time analytics dashboard -- can achieve quick success.
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