SOA tools--virtually bridging the legacy divide, Part 3

Likewise, says Bloomberg, semantic integration vendors have barely scratched the surface when it comes to normalizing the meaning of the same type of data in different applications in an SOA environment. So customers will still be challenged in developing a macro design for, as well as in interpreting the meaning and leveraging the enterprise context of the same types of data within their SOA environments.

But these are mere bumps in the road given the progress of SOA products thus far and the building momentum of customer adoption of SOA. In the next wave of SOA tools, look for vendors other than platform or niche SOA ones to SOA-enable their products. For instance, content management vendors with smaller customer bases may be more willing to risk SOA-enabling their platforms from the ground up, to steal market share from slower-moving incumbents who have to cater to large, traditional, application-centric customer bases.

At the other end of the spectrum, the majors are committed to SOA and may develop platforms that can organically accommodate SOA and other component technologies they do not already have. What's more, they have the funds to buy specialists of this type to bring them under their own SOA umbrella. Consolidation is no doubt some time off, however, as the diversification of SOA tools is still aggressively expanding the industry. But SOA is just the kind of paradigm-altering technological development that could precipitate such industrywide upheaval.

According to Sandra Rogers, program director of SOA, Web services and integration at IDC, that reality begs the question: Should customers buy all their SOA tools from one vendor? Of course, the answer is: It depends. For instance, she says, a major may have more extensive tools, but a vendor with fewer tools may have made theirs less proprietary, better integrated with one another and more standards-based so they are future-proof.

Whatever strategy customers pursue, though, SOA bodes well for them. Easier integration, better ROI and greater agility to compete are benefits that go straight to the bottom line, and that will make SOA an alternative that customers will find hard to resist.