SOA Technology Adoption Reaches 90% in 2006

Nine of every 10 companies are adopting or have adopted service-oriented architectures and will exit 2006 with SOA planning, design, and programming experience, according to a new AberdeenGroup benchmark report, 'Enterprise Service Bus and SOA Middleware.' The report, based on an Aberdeen benchmark survey of more than 120 IT and business professionals, indicates a growing and widespread acceptance of SOA technology, especially among large enterprises (at least US$1 billion in annual revenue). But migrating to an SOA doesn't come without a price, the survey also found. "Redesigning business processes, high IT integration costs, and customization challenges are eating up 40% of the IT budget in integration expenditures," said Peter S. Kastner, Vice President and Research Director for Enterprise Integration at Aberdeen and author of the report. "SOA is broadly seen as a real technology step forward, with the largest companies, who have the biggest integration problems, leading the way." Enterprises are taking three distinct approaches to SOA adoption: * SOA "Lite": This approach is based on open-source programs and industry standards and is best suited for small companies, lightweight integration, and simple Web services such as employee self-service. * Enterprise SOA: This is a suite of SOA middleware for mission-critical and complex installations, best suited for mid-to-large companies. * SOA ERP. This approach offers mid-size and some large companies an entry to SOA via extensions to enterprise resource planning (ERP) application software. The report examines the state of SOA middleware adoption in mid-2006 with an emphasis on enterprise services buses (ESBs), middleware software that connects, orchestrates and manages business processes across an SOA. Enterprise SOA practitioners prefer full-function suites that include ESBs. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report go to: its Web site.