The SOASaurus was a successful Proof of Concept
Well known Burton analyst Anne Thomas Manes bloged recently about the dying species of the SOAsaurus hit by the sudden economic catastrophe.
I can’t believe that this is the same person that used to raise millions of VC in her former role as executive of Systinet. But that’s the beauty of being an analyst. You have to re-assess the market again and again and change your mind if the market (hype) changed.
There are many indications that Dinosaurs died in a big bang of climate change. And that’s my major point: The change of the economy and the climate change that killed the dinosaurs had nothing in common. So what has the SOAsaurus and the real dinosaurs in common then?
The dinosaurs and the SOAsaurus are significant proof of concepts for major innovations. The dinosaurs have been the first very large vertebrate with a backbone or spinal cord, a brain case, and an internal skeleton. Even though the direct further “development” of a pure dinosaur failed, the concept was a major breakthrough and paved the way for the vertebrates including human beings. (I am not a biologist; please take this as an analogy…).
I believe SOA has not suddenly died. Everybody who still believed (until Anne’s blog) that SOA would bring a cost saving or business value as a stand alone initiative missed the evolution of SOA of the past two years. SOA proofed that it is the outstanding concept of integration across application silos, across technology tanks and vendors. I totally agree with Anne that pure SOA has no return of invest, but this comes from the BPM, ERP, Business Event, BI and other systems that are directly related to business value contributions.
How many muscles would an upright walking animal or human being require without having a skeleton and backbone? Bones, Muscles, and a well protected brain, that’s the concept that survives in symbiosis. Therefore SOA will decline the hype – no question – but continue to be a major ingredient of future enterprise software concepts.
Have a Great Year 2009
Stefan
