And anyone without an SOA strategy may as well give up and go home, because everyone else has got one.
The thing is, SOA is not a new concept. IT started out asa a service to business; network providers offer a service to connect computers together; the chargeback scheme some IT directors use to charge business departments for IT; and the whole concept of utility-based computing relies on the premise of a service oriented approach to IT. Moreover, operating systems, databases and infrastructure middleware provide software architecture which deliver services that applications can use. Sounds very much like an SOA.
What has changed is that the IT industry has recognised the need for standard procedures and protocols to define communications between applications and service levels. Arguably, the suppliers should be applauded for agreeing to work together in industry alliances to define the required standards. But it has been the industry which sold users proprietary systems that could not readily communicate with each other. And now it is selling a solution to the problem it created.
