SOA is not DOA

SOA (service oriented architecture) is not dead. It is alive and well.

Mobile apps use it. iPhone apps that get data from a server (e-mail or Twitter, for example) use web services -- a service oriented architecture.

SOA was the big thing back in 2006. So why do we not hear about it today?

I suspect it had nothing to do with SOA's marketability.

I suspect that no one talks about SOA because no one makes money from it.

Object oriented programming was an opportunity to make money. Programmers had to learn new techniques and new languages; tool vendors had to provide new compilers, debuggers, and IDEs.

Java was a new programming language. Programmers had to learn it. Vendors provided new compilers and IDEs.

UML was big, for a while. Vendors provided tools; architects, programmers, and analysts learned it.

The "retraining load" for SOA is smaller, limited mostly to the architects of systems. (And there are far fewer architects than programmers or analysts.) SOA has no direct affect on programmers.

With no large-scale training programs for SOA (and no large-scale training budgets for SOA), vendors had no incentive to advertise it. They were better off hawking new versions of compilers.

Thus, SOA quietly faded into the background.

But it's not dead.

Mobile apps use SOA to get work done. iPhones and Android phones talk to servers, using web services. This design is SOA. We may not call it that, but that's what it is.

When the hype of SOA vanished, lots of companies dropped interest in SOA. Now, to move their applications to the mobile world, they will have to learn SOA.

So don't count SOA among the dead.

On the other hand, don't count on it for your profits. You need it, but it is infrastructure, like electricity and running water. I know of few companies that count on those utilities as a competitive advantage.