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When SOA standards attack


By David S. Linthicum
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July 15, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 2)

What happened to all the talk about SOA standards? You know, the whole WS* thing, and the 100-plus standards that everyone followed? Yes, I said “followed,” as in past tense.

Truth be told, SOA standards have a diminishing value, much like anything that floods the market. There were just too many standards to track, and many of them were redundant and not sincere. The fact of the matter is that interest in standards continues to fall off, and those who placed major bets on standards are starting to feel the stress.

The trouble came about when the creation of SOA standards moved from R&D to marketing. In essence, SOA technology companies found that it was a good way to sell technology. For instance, you create a standard that you drive, then create technology around that standard. After that, point to the fact that you are based on a “standard,” the one you created. It’s kind of silly when you think about it, almost like defining the ideal body type, which just happens to be your own body.

Thus, with standards driven by marketing and leveraged as a way to sell technology, the SOA technology vendors gave birth to over 100 SOA standards within several standards bodies. Typically, not much is behind most of these standards, and usually only one company may drive a standard, with few exceptions.

The problem with this approach is that those who consume SOA technology and want to leverage standards are, in many cases, left holding the bag as both the standard and the technology that support it become irrelevant. Thus, what you thought was a transactional service standard that insures portability turns out to be a standard that defines just one product, not a group of products. Therefore, the standard really brings no value to the table.

Even more popular standards such as BPEL are going through some rough times these days. In some instances, BPEL may be a good fit, but in most instances, SOA projects are opting for other types of service-binding technology (composites, workflow, etc.). Thus, if you invest in BPEL, there could be a day when that standard is replaced by something better and the code is quickly considered legacy. Moreover, with BPEL, as with many standards, the vendors have placed proprietary extensions into the technology to circumvent some of the limitations of the existing standard, and thus by leveraging those proprietary extensions, you (in essence) lock yourself into that vendor, and you might as well not leverage a standard at all.



Related Search Term(s): SOA & SaaS

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