The IBM Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Partner Program, formalized in June 2005 with 50 Business Partner members, has grown to 2,500 members that take advantage of IBM software, services, tools and education to help their customers embrace SOA.
A new initiative, "Ready for SOA," provides incentives for members in the IBM Business Partner SOA Specialty. These Business Partners have demonstrated full support of the IBM SOA Foundation -- IBM's set of standards-based software, best practices and patterns for deploying SOAs – and have me the rigorous business and technical requirements for invitation to the specialty. In exchange, Business Partners in the SOA specialty receive technical enablement, support, and a skills-building roadmap to access the growing SOA market opportunity.
