We know that in the SOA space, a lack of governance and effective management can lead to rogue services bringing down a system, and even compromising the business.
SOA implementations themselves often get called into question, especially when a lot of money is being spent, and payback or agility is not being seen.
On a larger scale, we're relying more than ever on systems and technology for our day-to-day existence and commerce, and at the same time, the impact of any system glitches are magnified to the nth power.
I just co-presented a Webcast with Jeff Papows, CEO of WebLayers and formerly president of Lotus, on what business and IT people need to proactively do to manage the risks of glitches. As Jeff, who is also writing a book on the topic to be released in May, put it, "we have all the ingredients here for the information technology version of a perfect storm. As of January of 2010 there were six billion networked things talking to other things -- whether that's local area networks, wide area networks, hot spots, Bluetooth or whatever. Its an immense of amount of everything from handheld computing to other Internet-savvy devices interconnecting in an unprecedented volume. There are literally a billion transistors in place for every carbon-based bi-ped homosapien life form on the planet. The strain on our infrastructure is more extreme than its ever been."
Add to that a backdrop of a tough economy, with IT and support departments being cut to the bone. Cloud computing adds a new dimension to
the risk.
At the same time, businesses rely on IT for every part of their operations, from manufacturing to office work to lunchroom services. Are businesses setting themselves up for failure in the event of a major IT glitch?
To meet this growing vulnerability, companies need to better encourage environments of innovation and automation. "The complexity curve is not going to flatten," Jeff pointed out. "Whether you're Ford, Toyota, Bank of America, or AT&T, I don't care who you are, we're all forced to do more with less. As a consequence, the only thing in my view we can do is do for ourselves what we've promised to do for the market all along, and that is innovate and automate." Tools such as design time governance, quality assurance, and security middleware can help, he says.
But tools alone won't do the trick, he adds. "There is no silver bullet." What is essential is a corporate culture and management structure that encourages managers and practitioners to develop and follow best practices. "Glitches are no longer something that happens in the backroom. They're something now that affects the quality of our companies' success in the marketplace. Therefore in my view, its not just a matter fo IT management -- it's corporate management and the cultural freedom to be inventive, and allow computer science professionals who are on the front lines of our companies to acquire the tools that they need in order to get ahead. You cant simply solve these problems by working harder."
Become a learning organization in this regard, and learn from the experiences of others, Jeff urges: "It starts with gathering those best ideas and best practices and policies. It's like anything else, most of us didn't invent the wheel, but we're all big fans." Establishing centers of excellence also can go a long way to codifying these best practices into company systems and processes.
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