The SOA Factor

Joe Piskai (http://www.joepiskai.com)

Let’s take another angle and talk about Services-Oriented Architecture. I want to take a quick look at the relationship of several related “buzz” words that we have seen already. Let’s define some acronyms so we are on the same page:

SOA = Services-Oriented Architecture
ASP = Application Service Provider
SaaS = Software as a Service
EIA = Enterprise Information Architecture

One of these is a buzzword from several years ago that was less preferred after the dot com burst during which the name had become synonymous with failure – the ASP. There are several reasons why this happened, mostly linked to a lack of knowledge and maturity in these hosted application business models. There is, however, a return of ASPs to the market today. The survivors have solid business models that focus on customer integration, ROI, rapid deployment, interoperability, and agile technologies. Some are horizontally integrated; others vertical. What they all have in common are the necessary enablers of SOA, and a better, more complete business model. And now, this evolved ASP is what the market has begun to call Software as a Service. WebEx is a great example here. As a provider of corporate web-conferencing services, they have not only continued to refine their core competency, but are now exploring ways to integrate with and leverage organizations’ information systems (CRM, ERP, etc.), pulling data and calling web services into these collaborative meetings. This small difference in terminology is significant and descriptive of the change. Before, these organizations were serving information. Now, they are serving customers (via integration & technology)!

So, ASP + SOA = SaaS (an “enlightened” ASP model)

Enterprise Information Architecture is what many define as an organizations’ information roadmap, defining data flows and business processes. SOA invades the scene again. Corporations are now moving toward “upgrading” their business information systems to an agile environment. The pressure is not only internal. As competitors, vendors, customers, and business partners make this similar move, there is a business necessity to integrate – and in many cases provide application interoperability – outside of the firewall. SAP even markets their own brand of “buzz”– called Enterprise Services-Oriented Architecture… it almost sounds proprietary! It does highlight an interesting question, however…

What is the difference between SOA for business and SOA for the internet society? I remember hearing some other blogger put it like this: it’s like (corporate) suits and (internet) hippies. On one hand, you have people trying to make money. Where is the ROI? How will this help us grow, realize profits, reduce costs? This is how a salesforce.com sales representative will give you SOA. But what about SOA for the internet? For the masses of people, many of whom don’t care about making a cent? This is Web 2.0 (a great part of it, at least). The digital ethnography students at KSU who made the Web 2.0… The Machine is Us/ing Us video we watched in class is a perfect example. They are interested in social/cultural anthropology as affected by technology trends. They want to publish themselves, subscribe to another’s channel or feed, collaborate to solve problems together. We talked about this… for the first time in history, consumers are becoming producers as well. We are entertaining ourselves. Is SOA a part of this? Definitely. This social movement parallels that of technology and businesses.

Try to imagine the following:

Suit: “I want our CRM system to access a framework of services (from our internal systems, business partners, and the web) and deliver to our salespeople this composite dashboard. I want to be able to change those services on the fly. I also want the sales people to talk to pre-sales and consulting. There is some kind of disconnect going on there. Actually, make all their legacy systems talk to each other. And have everyone and every system use the same employee list as defined by HR, and customer data as defined by CRM. Make sure Sony gets hooked up to our product list; they want real-time access to our inventory numbers so their new system can automatically order more widgets from us. What about MDM? ...”

Hippie: “I want to share my ideas with the world. Not only do I want people to read my blog, but I want to collaborate with other great minds so we can solve these social problems that keep me up at night. I think it is entertaining to read about certain things, so I subscribe to a number of feeds. Wikipedia is my home. I want to have an equal stake in what is classified as true and accurate information. I want to read the news, but I want to post my reaction, and read others’ reactions as well. It makes my life better to know that the world hears me… and I hear the world. I am a programmer, so I want other programmers to leave the doors to their applications open...”

Moral of the story? SOA is not just a phase; it is a movement and a base on which to build information structures for business and the internet. To me, it’s a “make or break” factor. And when "break" means joining the ranks of the crashed-and-burned... the corporate world will respond.