Microsoft SOA: what's behind the 'cool Nordic codename'?

At its recent SOA and BPM conference, Microsoft laid out more of its SOA roadmap and vision, wrapped under the codename "Oslo."

Microsoft doesn't want to compete directly with IBM, BEA, Oracle and SAP -- it wants the markets these vendors are ignoring

The vendor provided some specifics, particularly the product sets that would be part of Oslo, but was vague on other details. ZDNet colleague Mary Jo Foley observes that Microsoft made no mention of specific dates for its SOA rollouts.

The Oslo SOA bundle will encompass BizTalk Server 6, BizTalk Services 1 (Internet Service Bus), .NET Framework 4, Visual Studio 10, and System Center 5. Nothing new or dramatic in this announcement, other than firming up Microsoft's evolving SOA strategy. (And note that they've been using the SOA acronym freely and frequently over the past year -- hooray.)

Industry analysts are generally favorable to the announcement, but say Microsoft is late getting to the table, and may have a tough time competing with vendors already well-established in the SOA space.

Scott Wilson, for example, sees the potential behind Microsoft's new SOA moves:

"The more cynical among us might simply see that as a list of existing products thrown together with a cool Nordic codename to leverage assets that were already in development and which have no additional added value in the SOA department. I think, however, that there may be some real value to the initiative, and that it may provide a more realistic method of achieving SOA benefits in many organizations without the heartache that starting with more 'pure' tools from scratch might entail."

Scott wonders, however, whether Oslo is a manifestation of Microsoft's incremental approach to building SOA, or is a way of backing into its existing proprietary product base. (I blogged about Microsoft's strategy here -- don't spend months planning, just do it.)

InformationWeek's Charles Babcock also wrote a bullish piece on the announcement, observing that "Microsoft may be playing catch-up to BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Sun Microsystems in SOAs, but if it's late, at least it arrived with an interesting game plan." However, he quotes analyst Rob Helm, who opines that "many of the business applications that companies will use to assemble component-based composites won't come from Microsoft, an obvious weakness of the strategy. SAP and Oracle are better-positioned in this regard.

So the analysts say Microsoft is doing the right thing, but still lags far behind IBM, BEA, Oracle, SAP, et al, in SOA.

Let me offer another perspective here. I don't believe Microsoft intends to compete with IBM, BEA, Oracle, SAP, et al, for SOA customers. I don't think Microsoft even wants to take away their customers. Instead, Microsoft is going after a market these vendors have been totally ignoring -- the small to medium size businesses that haven't even thought about SOA yet.

Historically, Microsoft has been very effective at playing the role of disruptor, providing new products or services to underserved and unserved markets. Windows Server and SQL Server did not start out in the Fortune 500, and still, to this day, play peripheral roles in such organizations. Instead, Microsoft sweeps into underserved and unserved markets with commodity priced tools and platforms, builds a huge constituency, and keeps chasing other vendors concerned about high-margin sales upstream. The software giant is clearly aiming for this role in the SOA space.

Remember, until now, SOA has been a luxury of the well-heeled organizations, who have the big bucks and resources to pour into consulting engagements and Big SOA efforts. These are the high-margin projects -- companies that can afford to have their enterprise architects and developers in months of planning meetings to iron out the details of SOA.

Now, from the experiences of the early adopters, the market has learned what SOA approaches seem to be working, and what tools need to be applied. In this next phase, we will see small to medium size businesses looking at SOA adoption for more focused, immediate business pain points. This is Microsoft's sweet spot -- the companies that can't afford Big SOA engagements and platforms, and just want quick and effective solutions for nagging business problems.