Nigel Bakker's SOA Soapbox

As is usual in the software industry, there is an incredible amount of hype and noise around this thing called SOA – otherwise known as Service Oriented Architecture.

But business is weary and sceptical of hype, and rightly so. Over the years the IT industry (software in particular) has made many promises but very rarely do these promises get met. Why should SOA be different?

Probably the biggest thing in favour of SOA being different is the fact that SOA is not in fact a product, or even a technology! Rather it’s a mindset, or an approach to actually leveraging some of the value locked into the rat’s nest of software applications foisted on an enterprise by vendors and even their own IT department.

The first rule of succeeding with SOA when you start down the SOA road (when not if!) is do not believe the vendors. They lie. All of them! (So what’s new?). I have had many dealings with various vendors of so called SOA software products, ranging from governance tools, to ESBs (Enterprise Service Bus), and have been lied to by all of them. Oh, they believe what they are saying – which in their minds means they are not lying! But, they all over-promise and under deliver.

Don’t let my vendor rant dissuade you though, there is real value to be had in the tools and products dispensed by the various vendors. It is up to you to find the value and leverage it however.

Back to the real question though, what is the value proposition behind SOA? Haven’t we heard it all before?

Yes we have, but until now, we had not reached a point of maturity that would allow us to really exploit and realize the potential of SOA. Several things have happened, most notably the standardizations that have been driven by the rush to the web. These standardizations have not only happened, but are actually in widespread use. Finally it is genuinely possible to expose functionality from legacy systems as services. Not necessarily easy, but definitely doable for a reasonable cost.

In fact, the current recessionary climate is likely to be a boost to SOA adoption. In simple terms, businesses are looking to sweat their digital assets longer and harder, and SOA is just the approach to enable this. Rather than automatically upgrading to the next version of this or that, businesses are asking themselves the question: “Do I really need the new version? Can I use what I have differently?” Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the answers are coming up: “No” and “Yes” respectively. The question that follows is then: “How do I use what I have better?”

Part of the answer is SOA. Not the whole answer, but certainly a significant share of the answer lies in enabling the business to leverage what they have, better. SOA provides us with a mental framework for leveraging existing assets. But, there is a caveat. SOA is NOT simple. It is NOT easy. And, most definitely, it is not a silver bullet! (Done without care it may well be a lead bullet to the CIO’s head.)

Adopting SOA is a journey, first you need to understand that it will ultimately change the way you do business. Everything you do in the business needs to be reviewed and weighed and measured to see if it can be leveraged as a service. To do this, you need to revisit all your business processes, and look for automation opportunities within each process. Start with the processes that are fundamental to your day-to-day business and expose the common elements as services. Immediately, these will become available to be used in different contexts. If done correctly, it will not only be possible, but relatively simple to combine existing services in new ways and in so doing, drive innovation in your business.

As you progress down this road, delivering new functionality increasingly becomes a matter of leveraging what you already have whilst only adding new bits to fill the gaps. At this point your business has become truelly agile, and SOA has become a way of life.

As I’ve already said though, this is not easy. Beware the salesman who says “we’ll install so-and-so ESB and SOA suite and you’ll be done!”

The fact is, you probably do need some new technology to make this magic happen, but be sure that you have a clear idea of what you need before you embark on a spending spree. SOA is still a relatively immature area in the software vendor stack. A significant amount of consolidation has happened with big vendors buying smaller vendors to get their hands on bits they don’t have. Most of these acquisitions are still being digested.

If you already have an ESB in your environment, keep it until it reaches the point of becoming a hindrance. At that point you will have a better idea of what your real needs are. Most importantly, employ the services of a vendor neutral SOA specialist to help you get started and to lay the foundation of your own approach. Only then, bring the vendors in and make them fit their tools to your vision, if they can!