Joe McKendrick (aka, Joe the SOA guy), put on his economist hat and recently commented on stimulus ideas for the downturned economy in his post, Shovel-ready SOA. He writes, "perhaps we should look at service orienting as a shovel-ready 'stimulus' program for corporate growth. Because it works both ways — the current rough-and-tumble economy may be good for SOA, and SOA may be good for the economy."
Good idea Joe.
As we wrote earlier, on one hand SOA is not dead or going away. We see success stories quietly happening all the time. On the other hand, like the shovel, SOA isn't glamorous anymore, but it's being used to create real value. Not only that, but we recently were musing on how SOA virtualization can help cut carbon emissions while it is saving money, hitting another aspect of the current stimulus suggestions.
Joe takes this discussion of SOA and the economy a step further as he comments that it can also help in "revitalizing business growth as well ... Consider the advantages properly implemented SOA can deliver: Increase confidence through greater transparency of
applications and data, especially at a time when markets have been quaking from fear of what they don’t know; help businesses collaborate better through more rapid integration… help organizations expand or contract pieces of the business, as needed, without fuss and muss."
In tough times, nothing boosts your chances to survive, and be positioned to thrive, like enhanced confidence, collaboration, and agility through SOA efforts. We'll just have to roll up our sleeves.
Of course, before you start digging, a little upfront architecture and planning goes a long way -- you don't want to hit a wire or gas line! OK, enough, we'll put away the shovel metaphor for now. Each of these themes can be further enabled by the confidence, speed, and agility that automated testing, ongoing validation and Service Virtualization can bring to SOA.
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