SOA Packages Are Just Too Darned Confusing

OK, that headline might seem a little awkward coming from a guy who works for a company that makes an SOA package, but it's just gotta be said. By and large, what most companies put out there in the way of SOA packages are just too darned big, too darned cobbled together, and ultimately too darned confusing.

Take as an example this article about HP's "new" approach to SOA: it's all about "runtime governance." The interesting thing there, is that I actually agree with HP's philosophy to a certain extent (the good bits being about operations, monitoring, quality, etc.), but being the behemoth that they are, HP simply couldn't resist in making this yet another piece of OpenView. So what is that now, eighteen gagillion sub-applications in OpenView? And, how many of those came from acquisitions that are still so fresh (in big company terms) that they are only part of OpenView in name and branding only?

HP has the right idea here, but they aren't going to be able to execute to that idea, IMO. By the time you peel the onion of OpenView to get at the good bits, you've been forced into buying more than what you need, tying yourself to a consulting sub-industry that specializes in implementing it, and added yet more complexity to something that's already pretty darned complex: solving your problems with an SOA approach. It's too much, and for anyone other than megacorps that will throw tons of money, bodies, and time into it, it's almost certain to fail and/or cost more than the benefits it will yield. Great idea, bad execution.

So, as much as I try to stay non-salesy in this blog, I think it does bear stating that for a lot of the SOA consumers out there, that a solution like that of the Interactive Server suite which focuses on precisely what HP is preaching -- operations, runtime governance/management, technology agnosticism -- but also promises an easy to implement, easy to understand, and easy to manage package, is where they need to be looking. Most IT departments don't have the time or the personnel to have OpenView or WebSphere or WebLogic specialists in-house and/or can't afford a team of consultants. So, they certainly need to be looking at solutions that they can get up and running and day-to-day manage on their own...or like many other SOA pilgrims, they'll get left on the side of the road, never reaching their goal.