Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. interviewed 53 early adopters of the SOA approach and in a new report concluded that most are proceeding with caution, concentrating their initial efforts mainly on internal systems. But perhaps more telling is the fact that most of the interviewees still aren't sure whether to standardize on an applications platform provider, like SAP or Microsoft, or a middleware provider like Oracle or IBM.
Experts point out that Oracle is focusing its SOA efforts on building an open infrastructure with its Java-based Fusion middleware offering. Alternately, SAP, with its NetWeaver application platform, is focusing its ongoing SOA initiative on making it easier for customers to deploy and customize various SAP packaged applications.
