Up the learning curve

When it comes to Web services and SOA, people are "learning as they go along, picking and choosing ideal best-user cases," says Sandra Rogers, director of SOA, Web services and integration for IDC. Rogers was recently interviewed on the state of Web services and SOA in IT Business Edge newsletter.

On the uptake of SOA so far: Steady. "Service-oriented architecture has significant mind share. Most large enterprises are planning on rolling it out, but they do say it's a mid-to long-term progression, not a short-term project." 

Greatest change in thinking: From point-to-point to the enterprise. "We've moved from simply creating Web services to, 'How do I aggregate, compose, consume and manage all of these services before I roll that out throughout my enterprise?'"

Biggest problem with SOA:  Design: "Understanding where and how to create a shared service requires technical design prowess — understanding who in the business process will be consuming these services and where. Then you get into the whole behavioral aspect — the re-engineering that comes along with it. It's really dealing with more complex use cases."

On the maturity of standards: Mixed adherence. "A lot of the early adopters of Web services were there before the basic standards had solidified. We just keep moving up the stack of quality of service."