HP's agile SOA initiative

Emboldening its position in the emerging SOA arena, Hewlett Packard has introduced a new suite of SOA services and announced plans to launch four new SOA "competency centers" around the globe. HP states that the objective of its new initiative is to guide customers" through the entire SOA process, from envisioning and assessment to development and governance."

The centers -- located in Atlanta, Bangalore, India, Sophia Antipolis, France and Tokyo -- are designed "to assist customers in planning, designing, implementing and managing SOAs to improve their business performance." They are staffed with HP and third-party experts to "offer customers access to architecture and consulting skills, software and hardware demonstrations, seminars and hands-on workshops."

Stepping up to the challenge raised by competitors like IBM, HP hopes the new initiative will help drive sales of its SOA consulting services and management software. The software product of particular interest is the recently introduced HP OpenView SOA Manager, a tool designed to "manage the lifecycle of business services in order to achieve better linkages between business and IT."

"Companies can no longer afford to have disconnected technology and business processes that are not aligned to drive business performance," said Nigel Ball, vice president, worldwide marketing, Consulting and Integration, HP Services. "SOA is an ideal way to help customers effectively bring new products and services to market faster and increase IT governance while reducing IT complexity and costs of maintenance."