Getting from There to Here – First Steps

If you’re creating a brand new corporate IT structure (from scratch), choosing SOA is a straightforward choice. Since 99% of the time IT shops are modifying existing systems, replacing individual modules of the environment or integrating new applications (or replacements of old applications) into the enterprise, any further discussion on the ivory tower case of ‘build it from scratch’ is a waste of time.

First the good news! IT vendors have been busy relabeling everything that connects, converts, bridges, transforms, and controls as a "SOA product" 100% guaranteed to get you from There to Here, easily and automatically without even a single solitary line of code. So what's the good news? Some of the products actually work! Oh, never automatically and easily, and never without requiring significant mindset changes. But still, producs that actually work and do (much) of what they say are a nice change.

But the first SOA steps don't require tools, and missing the first steps is the common failing of SOA implementation attempts. Get or lose your ROI (return on investment) on SOA right here at the start...

(...to be continued in Step 1)