Hurwitz on SOA governance, services management |
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By Jack Vaughan, Site Editor
14 Apr 2009 | SearchSOA.com |
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Correspondent George Lawton had a chance recently to speak about SOA with Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates and author of "SOA for Dummies." Part of the discussion revolved around the recent Tech Target SOA Survey. She noted that for the most part, the survey matched what she has been seeing in the SOA space. There were also a few genuine surprises.
First: A re-cap. Our take on the survey was that hype around service-oriented architecture may be subsiding, but use of SOA has spread. Is there a better alternative for enterprise development and integrations? Among the survey respondents, 49% said their organization has one or more SOA projects under way, and 60% characterize their current or future SOA projects as enterprise level as opposed to departmental/divisional level (21%), or single, isolated projects (19%). Still, respondents admit, there are hurdles for broader SOA deployment.
For her part, Hurwitz is seeing SOA governance as being increasingly important in SOA implementations. Hurwitz indicates that although SOA has gone more mainstream, organizations are having more trouble with implementing SOA governance. She said, "It is not really a technical challenge, it is a business issue. You are really talking about creating business services that need to be tied to business expectations of the rules. They have to be consistent. You have to clearly understand who is allowed to make changes and under what circumstances. It is a complicated mix of political, process, and collaboration issues."
She said the survey also indicates that people are moving away from Web services management software towards lifecycle management and business activity monitoring. The focus is shifting towards a holistic approach rather than at the Web service level.
People started out in SOA thinking they would create Web services. Then they started wondering why no one was using them. The reason is that they were not focused on what the business needs were, according to Hurwitz. She noted, "They are definitely focusing on Web services for specific things, but from more of a business or lifecycle perspective."
Another interesting finding was that quite a few people are looking at open source software for SOA. She said, "It is indicative of the times and the quality of some of the open source products."
In recent weeks, it appears the industry has moved away from its brief "SOA is Dead" march – evidence continues to emerge that SOA is alive. At the same time, there is a realization forming which admits that the world will not soon be composed of only Web services, and that managing the software life cycle is one of the major tasks for corporations today.
With reporting by George Lawton
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