SOA tops CIOs' must-have list

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) will top the list of CIOs' must-have technologies, according to a survey carried out by research firm IDC, says ZDNet.

SOA use is predicted to rise 144% between 2007 and 2009. Last year, 22% of CIOs said their company was using SOA, whereas 53% said it will be used in 2009.

The rise in CIOs' take-up of SOA is partly due to the media, says Melissa Martin, senior market analyst at IDC. According to her, the phrase is seen in the press so often, that CIOs are asking what it means.

Almost half of UK businesses are looking at implementing SOA technology as they develop their IT infrastructure, says silicon.com.

Forty-seven percent of the 180 organisations questioned are actively focused on creating SOA capability, according to a survey conducted by IT services company Griffiths Waite.

Hugh Griffiths, director of Griffiths Waite, said only 20% of the companies considering SOA are actually engaged in projects to implement the tech. The remainder are either at a proof of concept stage or are merely planning projects.

The approach being taken to deliver customer relationship management (CRM) software is providing a telling indication on how the enterprise application heavyweights are progressing with their SOA strategies, reports analyst group Gartner, says ITNews.

SOA has become the near-universally accepted method for delivering next-generation enterprise applications, Gartner VP John Radcliffe acknowledged.

And while SAP, Microsoft and Oracle had all made advances in their CRM offerings, users still faced uncertainty about how to progress.