be hard to figure out how your area is really regarded by those
looking in from the outside. For instance, IBM clearly cares about SOA
but how important is it really to that huge organization?
The question was answered for me when IBM's annual report arrived in
my mailbox yesterday. SOA is the highlight of the Software section and
Software accounts directly for $15.8b of IBM's $88.3b and must be
indirectly responsible for a large chunk of the $47.4b in services
revenue. Unlike any number of interviews by execs on technology
websites or press releases, if a company puts something into the
annual report and even more so highlight it as the most important
trend, they mean business. And to quote Samuel J. Palmisano, CEO of
IBM, in his opening letter:
"There is a significant shift underway in the world of software toward
what is called Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)." And
"IBM is in a strong position to capitalize on the SOA market which
some analysts expect to more than double, to $143b, by 2008"
Having read this, I decided to read again the announcement from IBM at
the beginning of April. This is the one where they announced 31(!!!)
SOA products 11 are new and the rest are enhancements to existing
products. IBM also claimed to have trained 90,000 of the company's
business consultants for SOA implementations. All of which was framed
by Steve Mills, head of IBM Software Group, as the fruits of IBM's $1b
per year bet on SOA. Again - impressive commitment.
Clearly SOA is key, if not the core, to IBM's software strategy. We
will of course have to wait and see if this "shock and awe" approach
to dominating a market will work - not to mention solve the customer
problems. I do wonder how 31 separate products (so far!) can really
deliver the simplicity and agility that is meant to be at the heart of
SOA. More importantly, SOA is about providing a solution, not selling
an even more complex collection of products.>>
You can read Mr. Bradley's blog at:
<http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/soaroads/2006/04/ibms_big_bet_on_soa.php>
Gervas
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