SOA, an architectural approach to Enterprise IT that has spawned mashups, BPM, SaaS, and even cloud computing - all of them architectural approaches that depend on "services" - continues to have momentum since SOA is not just services, it is about truly transactional services, which are often part of a workflow process.

Many businesses are nowhere in sight moving applications to the cloud and in any case to help them get there, they need to know how to do it and for that they need a roadmap, a framework and set of guidelines, and if it includes their legacy applications and systems, how they get there. For that, they need more than a strategy, they need a services "oriented" architecture.

SYS-CON Events offered all delegates at the 14th International SOA World Conference & Expo 2008 West in San Jose, CA, the opportunity to cast their vote for their favorite SOA technology provider in five highly competitive categories. The results have been announced, and they are as follows:

Best Overall SOA-Based Product
Winner: Nastel AutoPilot M6 - Nastel

Best SOA Tool
Winner: Intel XML Software Suite - Intel

Best Use of Web Services
Winner: EMC Documentum - EMC

Best Integration Solution
Winner: iTKO LISA Virtualize SOA 4.5 - iTKO LISA

Best Management Solution
Winner: Nastel AutoPilot M6 - Nastel

• REST-Based SOA: an Iconoclastic Approach