24 March 2008
by Simon Quicke
An increasing number of customers are buying into services orientated architecture (SOA).
According to research carried out by Griffiths Waite, users below enterprise level are becoming interested in the flexibility offered by SOA.
Hugh Griffiths, co-founder and director of Griffiths Waite, said more people understood SOA and did not need a basic introduction. He said the company had been encouraged by the findings of the research and will be using it in its sales pitch.
Of the companies surveyed, 47 per cent wanted to improve their SOA environment and just under half said flexibility had been one of the major aims. Around 14 per cent said SOA would help maximise long-term IT investment.
"Customers are attracted by the flexibility that SOA offers," said Griffiths.
He added that, although Griffiths Waite is an Oracle partner, it had carried out the research on its own initiative and the company was keen to build a profile in that market on its own merits.
In a statement, Alan Hartwell, vice-president of technology solutions and channels at Oracle UK, Ireland and Israel, said the survey suggested the market was now moving rapidly beyond the pilot stage.
"The message is clear: SOA has reached a point where organisations see the value, have undertaken pilots and are at the point of implementing," he said.
According to IDC research from Australia, SOA tops the list of CIO ‘must-have technology’. The analyst house expects the market to increase 144 per cent between 2007 to 2009.
Coverage in the mainstream media as well as the activities of major software vendors were attributed as reasons for the amount of interest.
