Insights from Reg readers on SOA

But there are some significant challenges with SOA. Feedback suggests that implementation needs to be approached in the right way, otherwise SOA initiatives are likely to flounder and fail to deliver results.

There is nothing wrong getting your feet wet with a single discrete manageable project, in fact this is recommended, but it's a big mistake to start out with a purely tactical approach without thinking about where it is leading. This is because the benefits of SOA are cumulative, so the real payback tends to kick in several projects down the line in a coordinated initiative.

Related to this, experienced adopters also highlight the importance of senior management buy-in to make sure support and investment are forthcoming on a sustained basis, particularly in the early days when the groundwork is being done. This, however, brings another challenge into sharp focus, that of actually explaining what SOA is all about to business executives.

Fortunately, there are lots of Reg readers who have faced this problem and worked out ways to deal with it. Some of the tips they offer in this area, along with a full discussion of other findings from the research, are contained in the study report entitled "Service Oriented Architecture: Lessons from the Front Line", available from the Reg Research library here.

Apart from providing insight and guidance, this report also highlights one of the biggest challenges standing in the way of organisations taking advantage of SOA at the moment – limited knowledge and a degree of confusion. Less than a quarter of those participating in the study, for example, said the definition of SOA was completely clear to them.

It is arguable that some IT vendors haven't particularly helped here with their narrow definitions of SOA picking up on just those aspects that are relevant to their offerings. Natural though this is, it has led to IT professionals being hit with a range of stories that often don't gel together very well and sometimes even directly conflict with each other.

And it doesn't help when vendors and analysts come up with ludicrous hype-laden terms such as "SOA 2.0" – as if there wasn't enough confusion out there already.

The bottom line is that SOA really does appear to be delivering results in some organisations, so as one Reg reader put it, it's about "keeping the faith and avoiding the buzzword soup".

For those interested in learning more about the practicalities of SOA adoption, a couple of the analysts who designed and reported the Reg study will be delivering a web seminar that you can sign up to here.