Real-World SOA: SOA Platform Case Studies (Forrester)

To build a comprehensive service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform, enterprises must decide their objectives for SOA, determine how to leverage their current infrastructures, and choose whether to adopt emerging SOA specialist products. Although firms can and do use Web services for simple solutions without this deeper level of thought, the seven case studies in this report show how an SOA platform requires a combination of “jump in now” and more comprehensive platform planning. These firms’ platforms were crafted based on a reasonably clear notion of the immediate business benefits desired — reaching, in some cases, to a level of restructuring the business value chain — combined with an understanding that an SOA platform will evolve over time.