Eric Roch points out that many of the issues that dogged enterprise application integration (EAI) may be getting addressed by SOA. However, some of the problems also have the same ring.
Some of the issues in SOA that echo the bad old days of EAI include constant change and a lack of experts with SOA, immature standards, and problems with legacy systems connections.
The SOA software suite is more complex than the EAI stack because we just keep adding to the stack without taking anything away. You could argue that there are more patterns and standards for interfaces but if you are using SOA for integration there is still an art to connecting the legacy systems. The rest of the EAI problems are more process related and can certainly be an issue for SOA projects.
EAI's track record is mixed at best, Eric states, for example, that in 2003 it was reported that 70% of all EAI projects fail. "Most of these failures are not due to the software itself or technical difficulties, but due to management issues," he says. Management issues are definitely the greatest challenge with SOA as well.
Eric points out that conditions are improved with SOA, however: "The good news is there are more patterns, methodologies, governance frameworks and experience for SOA than there was for EAI in 2003."
Eric also cites examples of SOA patterns, such as IBM’s SOMA and the OASIS SOA Adoption Blueprints. "We have improvements in tools, best practices and methods."
Let me add that another advantage is that connecting SOA interfaces don't necessarily demand armies of consultants as EAI did.
Leave a comment