ZapThink » CapGemini http://www.zapthink.com Sharpening Your Vision of the Future of IT Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:12:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 ZapThink: Enterprises Not Buying Service-Oriented Architecture by Name; Consulting Firms Integrate SOA Best Practices with Business-Focused Offerings http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/06/zapthink-enterprises-not-buying-service-oriented-architecture-by-name-consulting-firms-integrate-soa-best-practices-with-business-focused-offerings/ http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/06/zapthink-enterprises-not-buying-service-oriented-architecture-by-name-consulting-firms-integrate-soa-best-practices-with-business-focused-offerings/#comments Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:09:00 +0000 admin http://test.zapthink.com/?p=1954 "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 Release]]> 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 Release

]]> http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/06/zapthink-enterprises-not-buying-service-oriented-architecture-by-name-consulting-firms-integrate-soa-best-practices-with-business-focused-offerings/feed/ 0 SOA Consulting: Current Market Trends http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/05/soa-consulting-current-market-trends/ http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/05/soa-consulting-current-market-trends/#comments Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:09:00 +0000 Jason Bloomberg http://test.zapthink.com/?p=ZTR-WS113 Market Overview

  • Few enterprises are buying SOA by name. Instead, business buyers are paying for solutions to business problems, and more consulting firms than ever before are leveraging 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. Many consulting firms integrate SOA best practices into a broad differentiated offering that is not necessarily specific to SOA.
  • Many ostensible SOA efforts are little more than middleware shell games. Product vendors often distort the true message of SOA to best fit their product offerings. Similarly, the core mistake that some consulting firms are making is in confusing architecture with implementation.

Future Trends

  • 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 expects the percentage of IT projects that are named SOA projects to reach a maximum in the 2007 timeframe, and then gradually decrease as Service Orientation best practices become an expected, routine part of IT projects more broadly.

Table of Contents

  1. SOA Consulting: The State of the Market
    1. Scope of Report
    2. Methodology
    3. Survey Participants and Demographics
  2. SOA-Related Service Offerings
    1. Context for SOA within Differentiated Offerings
    2. SOA Expertise
    3. Challenges in SOA Consulting
    4. SOA Methodologies
    5. Typical SOA Engagements
  3. Enterprise Buyers and Solution Partners for SOA Consulting Firms
    1. Who Buys SOA Consulting?
    2. Current State of SOA Consulting Engagements
    3. The SOA Consulting Partner Landscape
  4. Trends in SOA Consulting
    1. Business Focus for SOA
    2. Growth and Trends of SOA Project Engagements
    3. Maturation of SOA Best Practices
    4. SOA Substance vs. SOA Hype
  5. The ZapThink Take
    1. Key Notes
    2. Decision Points
    3. Figures
    4. Tables

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]]> http://www.zapthink.com/2006/09/05/soa-consulting-current-market-trends/feed/ 0 The SOA-wise enterprise http://www.zapthink.com/2006/06/01/the-soa-wise-enterprise/ http://www.zapthink.com/2006/06/01/the-soa-wise-enterprise/#comments Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:06:00 +0000 admin http://test.zapthink.com/?p=1881 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 Trends]]> 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 Trends

]]> http://www.zapthink.com/2006/06/01/the-soa-wise-enterprise/feed/ 0 OASIS Develops SOA Adoption Blueprints http://www.zapthink.com/2005/08/15/oasis-develops-soa-adoption-blueprints/ http://www.zapthink.com/2005/08/15/oasis-develops-soa-adoption-blueprints/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2005 00:08:00 +0000 admin http://test.zapthink.com/?p=1517 Read more at: eBizQ]]> “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: eBizQ

]]> http://www.zapthink.com/2005/08/15/oasis-develops-soa-adoption-blueprints/feed/ 0 OASIS Members Form Committee to Develop Blueprints for SOA Business Requirements http://www.zapthink.com/2005/08/15/oasis-members-form-committee-to-develop-blueprints-for-soa-business-requirements/ http://www.zapthink.com/2005/08/15/oasis-members-form-committee-to-develop-blueprints-for-soa-business-requirements/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2005 00:08:00 +0000 admin http://test.zapthink.com/?p=1518 Read more at: OASIS Press Release]]> “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 Release

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