The Evolution of SOA Hinges on an Open Marketplace for Services

The law of far-reaching effects

Jan. 6, 2008 01:00 PM

We can't foresee the full potential of Service Oriented Architecture any more than Henry Ford could have foreseen the scale of today's automotive industry when the first Model T rolled off the production line nearly a hundred years ago. But there are signs that it will be equally far-reaching. If so, this will because of the same force that made Ford rich: the open market.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style in which the software applications are organized as loosely coupled services. It's being adopted by many enterprises today because it results in agile IT systems that are easier to adapt to change. But it has another capability that could be more important. It lets an enterprise use externally provided services and choose between similar services provided by different suppliers. It enables market competition.

Published Jan. 6, 2008— Reads 1,367
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media. All Rights Reserved.

About Chris Harding
Dr. Chris Harding leads the SOA Working Group at The Open Group - an open forum of customers and suppliers of IT products and services. In addition, he is a director of the UDEF Forum and manages The Open Group?s work on semantic interoperability. He has been with The Open Group for over 10 years. Dr. Harding began his career in communications software research and development. He then spent nine years as a consultant, specializing in voice and data communications, before moving to his current role. Recognizing the importance of giving enterprises quality information at the point of use, he sees information interoperability as the next major challenge, and frequently speaks or writes on this topic. Dr. Harding has a PhD in mathematical logic, and is a member of the British Computer Society (BCS) and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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