Technology life cycles are small and technologies evolve very fast. Companies started with the deployment of technologies some 30 years backs. Commercial programming languages like COBOL were specifically used for development of business applications. Over the years, many programming languages have come up, but there are instances were companies have continued with the use of same technology.
The software applications based on earlier technologies pose different challenges like platform dependency, local machine installation with little or no centralization, different application run interdependently of each other. Besides the fact remains that application know-how rests with developers who may have moved on and the new manpower may not be well aware of the old technology. On the other edge, it is equally challenging for a company to deploy new technology as it has inherit risks, investments, training and manpower requirements. The brainchild to overcome these extremities rests in consolidation of all applications as ‘services’, drop duplicates and centralize the resources for organization level sharing and interactions. Application consolidation and local machine non-dependency enables central control of resources, which means immense cut in manpower.
In SOA, various services (otherwise independent applications) are loosely coupled, which helps in streamlining overall business process. For instance, Finance department may loosely couple with IT helpdesk for troubleshooting, with Hr for headhunting, with operations for funding operations and so on. The very same example, revels the next business driver for SOA. Coupling various processes in business will in fact automate the entire business process. Process automation has time and cost implications. It is a decisive factor with direct impact on profitability of organization.
SOA implementation requires know-how of various application technologies, which is a complex task. The applications are modified for turning them into services. Therefore, before deployment of SOA, companies must modestly endeavor to learn SOA philosophy. It involves systematic channelising of manpower, by creating a ‘ Center of Excellence’ involving 6-10 people, drawn from IT & Operation Management. It involves active learning of technical terms, understanding business process flow and its documentation.
Conclusively, it can be said that SOA driven by business requirements, requires understanding of SOA philosophy and business processes to integrate.
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