When I read about the recent Gartner survey that claimed that SOA implementations and enthusiasm were declining, I was skeptical. I also thought that I could count on Joe McKendrick to write something thoughtful that challenged these assumptions, but also acknowledged things that SOA supporters might need to do in these hard economic times.
I was right on the second count as Joe wrote the post, SOA’s ‘decline’ may be overstated, but companies still want results. Looking past the headline at the actual research reported by Gartner, I choose to interpret the results a little differently, just as Joe did. First here is what Gartner reported in their report summary, Gartner Says the Number of Organizations Planning to Adopt SOA for the First Time Is Falling Dramatically.
According to their survey, “53 percent of the respondents were already using SOA in some part of their organizations. Another 25 percent were not using it but had plans to do so in the next 12 months; and 16 percent had no plans to use SOA at all... Since the beginning of 2008, there has been a dramatic fall in the number of organizations that are planning to adopt SOA for the first time. In 2008, this was cut by more than one-half, down to 25 percent from 53 percent in 2007, while the number of organizations with no plans to adopt SOA more than doubled from 6 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2008.”
This seems more like market saturation, with 78% of firms either using SOA or planning to. The drop in first time adopters might be, in part, because of the shrinking pool of those who have not adopted it. Joe makes a similar point in his post mentioned above. I will look more closely at his post, but first more from Gartner.
The report summary went on to quote Daniel Sholler, research vice president at Gartner - “Organizations without a clear business case for SOA and without a plan to develop or acquire the necessary skills are justified in taking a cautious approach, and delaying SOA adoption plans for the coming year.” This sounds like a good strategy for any technology initiative. I do not see this as a criticism of SOA but a caution to make sure that SOA implementations are launched with clear business objectives.
The Gartner work does not represent the only polls, Joe counters with some work of his own. He writes, “...based on a survey conducted in September and October (when the financial crisis was hot and heavy), we that found all systems were still ‘go’ for SOA efforts — but with plenty of continuing reservations about ROI. Fifty-two percent had SOA-based projects underway, and another 31% were planning to start SOA projects over the next 12 months.”
Joe then adds that IDC’s Sandy Rogers finds in her polling that SOA adoption has deepened across many enterprises. He quotes her. “The issue is not necessarily deciding if they should go toward SOA. What we’re finding is that for most organizations this is the way that they are going to move, and the question is just navigating how to best do that for the best value and for better success.” This sounds like good caution in down times and not a rejection of SOA.
A snapshot in time can be deceiving, as we have seen recently in other areas. SOA isn't so sexy anymore. There will be lots of pundits calling SOA dead, and maybe it will get a new name, or merge into BPM or WOA as we've discussed. Either way it is still quietly going on and providing value in most leading global firms.
We are actually finding continued interest in SOA. It is a way to cut costs among other things so this should be appealing to many firms in down times. At the same time, we would be the first to agree that there should be a sound business objective and a careful implementation that includes the comprehensive and continuous testing necessary to ensure success.
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