Introduction

Buzzwords come, buzzwords go… but service oriented architecture (SOA) is different than most passing fads. Although the name and acronym may be new, the concept has been around for many years. Thanks to modern industry standards, such as XML and Web services, SOA offers genuine economic advantages for enterprise IT.

Indeed, shipping giant Con-Way is blazing its own SOA trail. Con-Way is a real SOA pioneer; the logistics company started its efforts in 1997, long before the term was even created. Their IT team focused on modeling shipment functions across the transportation lifecycle, leveraging diverse technologies to build a complete system that can adapt to changing business needs. Now, that is what SOA is all about.

Or consider a startup named Zag. As we explain in this IT Strategy Guide, Zag helps companies like Capital One leverage SOA concepts to deliver sophisticated cross-plat-form applications for car buyers. The new DriveOne.com sites brings together both .Net and Java – and SOA made it all possible.

Zag’s work with CapitalOne shows one way to use SOA. But every enterprise needs to find its own way, striking a unique balance between a full-bore, future-thinking retooling of IT and simpler point solutions that solve specific problems. As we explain, there’s a broad spectrum between heavy and lightweight SOA.

This IT Strategy Guide is about more than case studies: We have solid advice for all stages in a SOA project. Our five surefire steps for making a SOA initiative successful will help you understand the pain, define the value, see the path and remember the people, while concentrating on the long-term payoff.

Another key topic: Truly realizing that SOA isn’t a one-shot deal. You don’t implement service-oriented architecture on Monday, and cross it off your to-do list when the project’s complete on Tuesday. SOA is organic, living and

growing, and requires a sustainable lifecycle to guide your IT strategy for years to come.

Best practices are at the heart of SOA plan. We’re delighted to present 10 steps to SOA, gathered from interviews with countless enterprise architects, developers and executives. They’ve shared their successes, so you can learn from their example – and they acknowledge their failures, so you’ll be alert to the danger signs.

Enterprise mashups offer the reusability of SOA plus very rapid development using prebuilt services outside the firewall. When you consider the power of “Web 2.0” concepts like AJAX and SaaS, you’ll see that enterprise SOA doesn’t have to rely only on enterprise resources.

We’ll close this IT Strategy Guide by looking at a final case study. Wachovia Bank made a huge bet on SOA back in 2004 – and the gamble has paid off. We’ll show you what they did, and why it’s a great model for all organizations to study.

—Alan Zeichick