<<Considering the downturn, there are new things that are killing SOA,
and perhaps a few things that have been killing SOA all along. Keep up
with me on this one.
*Some venture capitalists (VCs) are killing SOA.* Money is tight, and
/some/ VCs have taken to micro-managing /some/ smaller SOA technology
companies in their portfolios. Unfortunately, they don't understand the
market and are making the wrong calls in many instances. What seemed
cool at the last cocktail party is perhaps not the right thing to do
within a particular SOA technology company. I'm seeing all sorts of
silly things out there now, including some SOA companies that are in the
process of closing their doors.
*[ Learn more about SOA deployments: What actually works
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/16/38FE-soa-lessons-success_4.html?source=fssr>.
]*
*Sarbanes-Oxley is killing SOA.* SOA technology companies need access to
capital. Either you do that through VC, or you do so through the public
markets. However, going public is not advisable in most instances now
that they regulate the crap out of you. The Sarbanes-Oxley reporting
rules <http://www.soxlaw.com/> are expensive and counterproductive.
Thus, most SOA technology companies stay with the private equity players
or don't raise money at all. This has two negative effects. First, as
private citizens we're not given the opportunity to invest in emerging
SOA technology players. Second, the emerging SOA technology companies
don't have access to the same pubic markets as their much larger
publicly traded competition. Kill SOX, and the technology market will boom.
*Big consulting is killing SOA.* Here we go again, but the problem
continues. The larger consulting players that are typically systemic
within most global 2000 and larger government organizations are running
off cliffs with SOA on a daily basis. Bad advice, vendor-driven
architecture, lack of SOA skills, and lack of an overall path to SOA are
killing many a SOA project out there, and in most instances, with some
better guidance, it did not have to be that way. The larger consulting
organizations lead with the capable guys, and then drop off the kids to
actually do the real work. The larger SOA consulting players need to
invest in training, get a mentor, or stop playing the game.
*The lack of SOA skills is killing SOA.* SOA is not development, nor is
it traditional enterprise architecture; it's, well, SOA. Thus you can't
do SOA unless you have the knowledge around the proper approaches,
methodologies, and right enabling technology and standards. Most that do
SOA don't, and those folks fail. The lack of SOA talent is clearly
killing SOA.
*SOA-in-a-box is killing SOA.*Seems that the vendors are not hyping this
as much as they have been, but the whole SOA-in-a-box concept is still
out there. Technology is never a SOA solution; it's a means to implement
architecture. Indeed, your architecture should be independent of the
enabling technology and standards, and those that lead with technology,
typically are not doing architecture and end up with a patch more so
than an architecture. Sorry, there is no SOA-in-a-box.>>
You can read this at:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realworldsoa/archives/2008/12/5_things_that_a.html?source=NLC-SOA&cgd=2008-12-08
Gervas
