Suppliers of service oriented architecture technology
are struggling to deliver what users need, according to research
from analyst firm Macehiter Ward-Dutton.
The study looked at SOA platforms and tools from BEA, IBM,
Microsoft and SAP, in particular.
Users will get good business value out of SOAs when they do n0t
simply consider services to be reusable code that can make IT
systems more flexible, said the report. They should also view SOAs
as software units that can carry out business tasks and are managed
in ways that make their business value easy to understand.
Secondly, organisations need to adopt a methodical approach to
SOA initiatives that bridges the different stages of service
life-cycle. These include design, test, deployment and
operation.
None of the big four suppliers investigated has good answers to
the SOA lifecycle management challenge, said the report.
"At the moment, only small specialist companies such as Systinet
and Infravio are really looking at this lifecycle management
challenge properly," said Neil Ward-Dutton, a partner at the
analyst firm.
"Although the large platform suppliers are starting to forge
partnerships with these specialists, they are tactical partnerships
- they are still relying on the specialists to come up with the
answers for customers."