CapGemini
ZapThink: Enterprises Not Buying Service-Oriented Architecture by Name; Consulting Firms Integrate SOA Best Practices with Business-Focused Offerings
BALTIMORE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 6, 2006–ZapThink released a report today showing that few enterprises are specifically budgeting for or requesting Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) by name. Instead, business buyers budget for specific solutions to their business problems, and more consulting firms than ever before leverage Service Orientation best practices to provide those solutions. The main buyer of such initiatives has shifted toward the non-technical, business part of the enterprise.
“The clear pattern with today’s SOA projects is that they are increasingly business-focused,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink. “Many consulting firms are integrating SOA best practices into a broad differentiated offering that is not necessarily specific to SOA.”
ZapThink expects the percentage of IT projects overall that leverage Service Orientation best practices to continue to grow over time, and those best practices will soon become ubiquitous. ZapThink also expects the percentage of IT projects that are named, SOA-specific projects to peak in 2007, with Service Orientation best practices increasingly subsumed within the expected, routine part of IT projects more broadly after that date.
Key findings of the report include:
- Breaking up a large SOA initiative into multiple, discrete projects is an effective way to manage the risk of architectural change.
- Integration-centric offerings and technologies are taking a back seat to organizations’ need to improve their overall approach to enterprise architecture.
- Many SOA consulting providers are confused by product vendors who often distort the true message of SOA to best fit their product offerings.
- Many SOA consulting firms confuse architecture with implementation, causing significant issues in short-term SOA adoption.
- Average deal sizes for SOA projects range from an average of $150,000 for integration-focused efforts to several million dollars for enterprisewide and compliance-focused initiatives.
The report, available on ZapThink’s Web site at www.zapthink.com, features several firms offering SOA consulting services, including Accenture (NYSE: ACN – News), AgilePath, Alphacourt, Anexinet, Arc Aspicio, Avanade, BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS – News), BearingPoint (NYSE: BE – News), Bouvet, CapGemini (Paris), CherryRoad Technologies, City Practitioners, D. Callingham & Assoc., Daugherty Business Solutions, Definition 6, e-Brilliance, eSigma, gen-i, Geniant, Hitachi Consulting (NYSE: HIT – News), HP (NYSE: HPQ – News), IBM Global Services (NYSE: IBM – News), Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY – News), innoQ, IPT, Kanbay (NASDAQ: KBAY – News), Keane (NYSE: KEA – News), Lydian Technology, MITRE, Modhelus, Momentum SI, MphasiS, MW2 Consulting, Network Effects, Online Business Systems, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ProSolveIT, Satyam (NYSE: SAY – News), Schumacher Partners, Semantic Arts, SentientPoint, SilverTrain, SOA Software, SOA Systems, Software AG (Frankfurt), SRL Group, Statera, Summa Technologies, Synergy International, Systemiclogic, TasmanAve, TeamSOA, Tier1 Innovation, Voyant Group, Wipro (NYSE: WIT – News), WM-Data (Stockholm), and XWebServices. The report also mentions the following vendors: AmberPoint, Composite Software, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Infravio, LogicLibrary, Mercury (OTC: MERQ – News), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT – News), Mindreef, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL – News), Reactivity, RedHat (NASDAQ: RHAT – News), SAP (NYSE: SAP – News), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW – News), WSO2, and WebLayers.
Read more at: ZapThink Press ReleaseSOA Consulting: Current Market Trends
As the practice of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) matures, professional services firms that offer SOA-related services continue to lead the market in the creation and application of best practices for SOA. For this report, ZapThink surveyed 58 consulting firms who identified themselves as offering SOA consulting services in order to assemble a detailed, global picture of the state of the market for SOA consulting worldwide. ZapThink found a substantial maturation of SOA consulting offerings across the board, with an increased focus on the business value that SOA can provide. While there still remains some confusion over the nature and applicability of SOA, methodologies, engagements, and understanding of the SOA value proposition have all dramatically improved in the last few years to the point that SOA best practices are increasingly being taken for granted as the standard approaches for solving a broad range of business problems in organizations around the world.
The SOA-wise enterprise
Coming up with a comprehensive set of governance principles, however, is a daunting challenge. One that may put the dev team in the middle of corporate politicking. “You need governance but you don’t need to solve all the problems of the world,” says Jim Crew, formerly the director of data center infrastructure at Merrill Lynch and now a VP at SOA Software. Instead he recommends going with something that is good enough for now even if it isn’t complete or perfect.
ZapThink Senior Analyst Jason Bloomberg agrees with this approach: “We recommend you have a governance framework, but you don’t have to work out all the details before you start. Otherwise, you’ll end up with paralysis by analysis.” Bloomberg suggests pinning down a few key governance principles to start, such as how services will be reused and by whom.
ZapThink’s Bloomberg, who calls security the first roadblock to SOA, agrees: “People think that SOA is XML-based so a network firewall is all you need. Well, a firewall is not enough.”
He recommends implementing a wide range of emerging SOA security tools. These tools, such as AmberPoint SOA Management and SOA Software XML VPN Controller, act as intermediaries, often in the form of appliances. For example, XML accelerators and firewalls check the traffic against policies and lists, validate the XML schema, block malformed XML, and verify authentication and authorization. SOA gateways serve similar functions. Other appliances can federate identities among multiple systems. Products here include IBM Data – aPower XS40 XML Security Gateway and SOA Software’s XML VPN Appliance.
Read more at: Application Development TrendsOASIS Develops SOA Adoption Blueprints
“There is a shortage of clear, demonstrable examples of working SOA implementations that teams can use to jumpstart new projects,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst, ZapThink LLC. “By defining an archetypal set of business requirements and functions that SOA best practices can address, the adoption blueprints will encourage the production of useful implementation examples and lower the risk of SOA initiatives overall.”
Read more at: eBizQOASIS Members Form Committee to Develop Blueprints for SOA Business Requirements
“There is a shortage of clear, demonstrable examples of working SOA implementations that teams can use to jumpstart new projects,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst, ZapThink LLC. “By defining an archetypal set of business requirements and functions that SOA best practices can address, the adoption blueprints will encourage the production of useful implementation examples and lower the risk of SOA initiatives overall.”
Read more at: OASIS Press ReleaseShopping Cart
