Getting more value from your IT investments with SOA
Increasingly, the initials “SOA” (stands for Service Oriented Architecture) show up in industry reporting and in product offerings. Just as frequently, it’s being hailed as one of the powerful new approaches that will help technology investments pay off on their promises as never before.
But just what is “Service Oriented Architecture”?
Here’s what you’ll find on IBM’s marketing site:
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. With the Smart SOA approach, you can find value at every stage of the SOA continuum, from departmental projects to enterprise-wide initiatives.
There’s more that will take you into the value to be found in SOA, value that has to be music to any board wanting to be sure investors are getting their money’s worth – but it may still be a little hard for you to relate to an associate over lunch.
A quick hop over to YouTube turns up an explanation keyed to wardrobe changes: Flexibility, components, mix-and-match, ability to change easily as you innovate.
Not bad.
But I also like the way Greater IBMer John Patrick shared his views on his Patrick Web blog. Many of you will recognize Patrick’s name because of his IBM years as an outspoken proponent of the Internet, dating back to the early 90s. If you don’t know Patrick, you’ll find a bio on his Website.
On April 15th, Patrick wrote a blog he called: “SOA Las Vegas”. Unless you work with SOA, Patrick will tell you more than you knew you wanted to know – and do it in his trademark clear, entertaining style.
In part, he says:
In a nutshell, SOA will allow web sites to do much more than “click here to buy”. In fact web sites built with SOA will result in us standing in fewer lines in the physical world and have to endure fewer telephone call centers that want to control us. Fulfillment models at our favorite retailer’s web site will result in the staple goods we need just showing up outside the garage door when we need them. If businesses have the right attitude, SOA will enable them to get closer to the ultimate Internet – to build a people-oriented and user-friendly experience that is tightly integrated with all the appropriate business processes of the company.
Sounds good to me. You’ll find the rest of his discussion on PatrickWeb.