The Insider's Guide to Business and IT Agility
The Insider's Guide to Business and IT Agility
By David A. Kelly, Analyst, ebizQ , 10/02/2008
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Over the past few years I've seen an increasing shift of organizations moving away from point-to-point integration toward SOA.
While point-to-point integration certainly works and there are plenty of times and places to use it, it can be cumbersome and increasingly expensive in terms of resources, time and management effort over a long period of time. Furthermore, it can become difficult to adapt or modify as an organization's needs change. Granted, it's not impossible -- it's just that at some point the level of effort required to maintain, update and develop custom point-to-point integration connections and processes becomes considerable. Issues with scalability, reliability and total cost of ownership are driving organizations to consider alternative solutions.
That's why a number of organizations that I've talked to recently have been shifting their integration and development efforts toward SOA-based solutions. And while SOA-based systems are generally not necessarily simple, they do offer real advantages: when implemented right, with appropriate technologies, good best practices and real SOA governance. Organizations transitioning from point-to-point type integration to SOA programs have achieved real benefits. Here are some possible gains based on examples from companies aggressively pursuing (and succeeding at) SOA development:
When implementing SOA solutions, organizations need to keep in mind that SOA
isn't really just a project -- it's a program. That's why it's important to
figure out the overall goals (business and IT). Once an organization has defined
those goals, the approach for reaching them should be divided up into tangible
phases and specific deliverables, so that you can obtain business benefits throughout
the development process.