Defense doesn't rest with SOA

A new report indicates the Defense Information Systems Agency -- a huge systems buyer -- may be skeptical about all the SOA hoopla.  

The article in FCW quotes David Bryan, vice president of the Northrop Grumman Defense Group, as saying that the industry is struggling to determine a sound business case for the SOA approach.

Nevertheless, DISA is buying into a service-oriented, pay-as-you-go paradigm. Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, DISA's director, said the agency's goal is to "buy information services on an as-needed basis rather than pay a company to build or license an application," noting that the agency would like to take this utility approach to acquire everything from data center computing capacity to command-and-control applications." 

Despite efforts to go with incremental services, Evelyn DePalma, DISA’s procurement director, lamented, however, that vendors still "loaded their bids with software costs, as they tend to do with traditional contracts."