I’m never thrilled when I come across an article that would have been perfect for comment or inclusion from IONA and we’re not in it. I feel a little better when none of the folks with whom we compete are mentioned and the main commentary comes from the analyst community and an end user from an anonymous, Midwestern insurance company. Plus, this whole blogging thing gives me an opportunity to demonstrate to anybody who stumbles in here how IONA fits into the mix.
I just finished reading Three Ways to Avoid SOA Snafus published a couple of days ago at Datamation (I’m not afraid to date myself a bit and admit that I remember the days when Datamation was a slick, glossy monthly). The article is a pretty good primer on what companies need to think about as they evaluate how SOA may benefit the organization. In the first couple of paragraphs I felt like I was reading the words of our own CTO, Eric Newcomer when Forrester analyst Randy Heffner is quoted as saying:
“The biggest mistake people make is thinking that SOA is a technology. It’s not. It’s an architecture. And just because you know technology does not mean you know how to design an architecture.”
I can’t count the number of interviews and briefings I’ve facilitated where Eric begins the conversation just this way, and stresses that one of the biggest myths people fall for is believing that the can buy an “SOA in a box” add water and presto…instant SOA. It just doesn’t work that way and it’s too bad that so many vendors are still pushing that tired old claim in an effort to push their monolithic, centralized stacks.
There’s some other good advice in the article, including a reminder about governance and security – two areas we here at IONA also believe shouldn’t be SOA afterthoughts and are key pieces of our Artix advanced SOA infrastructure suite.