SOA is Dead, Will it Become a Zombie?

I came to my own realization that SOA, as an industry term, was on its way out last summer. As a concept, it’s wonderful and some people have accomplished great things by following the SOA paradigm. I found it interesting that Anne Thomas Manes, an industry thought leader in SOA, would be presenting a “SOA is Dead, Long Live Services” (details below) and believe it’s the right time to discover what is next on the horizon.

I’m not going to spend a good deal of time going into detail on how it failed to deliver, suffice to say that, as a whole, there was too much confusion surrounding what it was and what it could do. Most programs didn’t know where to even start. To make things harder, I don’t believe that the IA and testing community within the DoD has a good handle on how to test SOA, let alone deal with the security aspects of it.

We live SOA every day on the internet, withdrawing money from the ATM, use on-line bill pay, etc. Fundamentally SOA works very well, but I believe it has fallen into the trough of disillusion because the over-expectations created by industry, consultants, and ourselves got us there. But I have said that the SOA paradigm is solid, there is value in the rubble, and I’ve been looking into what will be the phoenix, not the zombie that rises from the grave.

Zombies are gross: they consume human flesh and brains. They slowly drone around, moan, just former shells of the life they used to contain. Why would I want to be a SOA zombie?

I have said that the fundamental concept, or paradigm, of SOA is strong, and it will be important to take what was good about it and make it useful. As a term, I believe SOA needs to go away; it just carries too much baggage. In particular, Web Oriented Architecture (WOA) may be one area where SOA concepts can be found, and do to the nature of a web-oriented environment, more native to web-based architectures. I’ll also look to cloud computing, which can support/be the environment for WOA, and support many other aspects of traditional systems in a more efficient manner that’s less prone to catastrophic failure.

There are many possibilities and good things that can rise out of SOA. Keep sharp, and have an open mind, there is goodness if we can recognize, capture and use it.

Whatever the future may be, I’m not going to be a SOA zombie.

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Presented by: Anne Thomas Manes

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Many service oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives have stalled or failed, and with the impending 2009 budget cuts, prospects for SOA look bleak. Except in rare situations, SOA has failed to deliver its promised benefits. It’s time to face reality: the term “SOA” now carries too much baggage. It’s time to declare that SOA is dead and move on to more the practical matter of bringing up its offspring: Services. In this telebriefing, Research Director Anne Thomas Manes will examine the myths and misconceptions that derailed SOA efforts, provide guidance for salvaging value, and supply actionable direction for future efforts.

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Dates:

Tuesday, February 3, 2008

2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT / 19:00 UTC GMT / 20:00 CET

Wednesday, February 4, 2008

9:00 a.m. ET / 6:00 a.m. PT / 14:00 UTC GMT / 15:00 CET

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Registration options:

– Register online

http://campaign.burtongroup.com:80/CT00209101Mzk4.HTML