While the potential benefits of SOA are clear, like the ability to reuse existing assets, the standards picture looks anything but settled.
Not only did Forrester Research count some 115 standards floating around SOA and Web services in its most recent study on that topic, but also, it found that just confirming which vendors support which standards is nearly impossible. Yet CIOs must press ahead with SOA projects in order to meet business needs. Hong Zhang, director and chief architect of IT Architectures and Standards at General Motors, has been balancing the standards dilemma with ongoing SOA work for several years.
