Is SOA Only for Large Organizations ?

There is a view amongst small and medium size organizations that implementing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is only for ‘the big guys’ due to the cost and resources that are required. In fact nothing could be further from the truth as any size organization that run a simple PC with Word or Excel can benefit from a SOA and particularly a standards based SOA which is what the SOA Gateway can provide . The following looks at the three types of organization and how standards based SOA can help them. As we’re talking technology here, we classify organizations based on the technical capability rather than how such organizations may be traditionally classified.

‘Small’ Organizations

These organizations are seen to be those with a number of non linked PCs or perhaps a small network of PCs with a file server. In the majority of cases, these organizations would have no technical support on site and would be more than likely to use software services delivered by their larger partners than providing services themselves.

These organizations have suffered in the past due to the cost of integrating with their larger partners which was prohibitive. With the advent of SOA, your partners are in a position to expose services that you can consume with the standard applications you use today. Products like Excel and Word can work with services thus enabling you to integrate with the IT systems of your partners in a way never before possible. The advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud based services provides the ability for smaller organizations to use extremely complex software solutions for a fraction of their cost as they are charged based on your usage of them rather than the base cost of developing the solution.

‘Medium’ Size Organizations

These organizations are likely to have a reasonably sized network of PCs with a number of servers with various applications running in support of the business. They would have a minimum of a technical and/or network support function and in many cases would have application development specialists on site.

These organizations also suffered based on the cost of integration. Massive savings can be made by giving trusted partners access directly to systems thus facilitating ‘straight through processing’ (STP) improving the speed at which data is processed and the quality of that data. Using a standards based SOA, these organizations can benefit internally by creating services for internal use and enabling those services externally that partners or even potentially customers could use. A standards based SOA enables a plug and play approach to be adopted by choosing best of breed products that best suit the need and produce the best ROI. Many SOA products also adopt a usage based licensing approach thus making them more cost effective for such organizations.

‘Large’ Organizations

These organizations are likely to have a very large network with onsite development staff for applications. Apart from the obvious benefits for these organizations from using SOA internally, it also presents great opportunities to improve business. A standards based SOA will enable these organizations to easily provide access to trusted partners to their systems. This provides the ability to consider working with smaller suppliers for example who can deliver value to the business. Essentially the only thing a supplier will need will be a PC with Microsoft Excel and they can play with the big guys.

Summary

Any organizations with any IT capability from a single PC and upwards can benefit from a standards based SOA for the following reasons:

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  Minimal cost of integration


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  The usage base licensing model allows your costs to increase or decrease based on your usage thus becoming an operational expense (OpEx) rather than an expensive capital expense (CapEx).


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  It facilitates ‘straight through processing’ of data thus ensuring speedier processing of the data and less data errors through retyping of information.


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  In terms of offering services to business partners or customers, offering an online capability helps enormously.