SOA's support network

David Linthicum counterbalanced last week's downbeat assessment on the things killing SOA with five reasons to be optimistic about service orienting (that's the spirit).

Very notably, Dave credits enlightened CTOs/CIOs and CEOs with seeing SOA through the swamps of skepticism. As he observed, "CTOs (or those that have the role and not the title) that approach SOA as an architecture will win the game. However, those that look at SOA as another chance to toss technology at a problem will fail. It's that simple." In conjunction with knowledgeable CIOs are visionary CEOs that understand how SOA can transform the business.

This also calls to mind observations Anne Thomas Manes made a few months back, as a result of Burton Group's study of SOA success -- that the companies that have moved forward with SOA usually took in a new CIO that made things happen.

I want to add one more favorable factor to Dave's list. In the absence of enlightened C-level executives, SOA has many proponents -- or evangelists -- in the managerial and professional ranks who believe in SOA and are willing to take the risks to make it happen. Often, they have to go against a lot of organizational resistance, or launch efforts under the radar. But they understand that there are both short-term and long-term gains to be realized through building an inventory of reusable, loosely coupled services.