IBM and BEA's latest SOA moves analyzed

What are IBM and BEA up to? What are they not up to?

Blogging colleague Dana Gardner has just posted this podcast panel consisting of Steve Garone and Neil Macehiter, two leading analysts in the SOA space, who provided some insights on BEA and IBM's latest moves.

Steve Garone on IBM's latest huge flurry of announcements:

"IBM certainly has done a lot to steal the thunder in terms of messaging around SOA. They have introduced a lot of products, acquired a lot of companies, and put together a what looks like a comprehensive solution. The 'baggage' there, of course, is that a lot of this comes through legacy products that have to be brought up to date, up to speed, and relevant to SOA. The question for IBM is going to be just how well have they done that and I think the jury is still out on that."

Neil Macehiter on BEA's SOA 360 announcement:

"BEA SOA 360 is BEA putting a stake in the ground. They see their offerings around service-oriented infrastructure platforms evolving over the next two to three years. ...They are applying SOA principles to the wave of actual architecture beyond the learning platform. What this is really all about is providing enabling capabilities which are themselves delivered as services and exporting those within the overall platform. ...They've also announced in this part of SOA 360 the WorkSpace 360. They are trying to facilitate a more collaborative approach to SOA that recognizes the roles of the different players in any SOA initiative."