The true benefits of service-oriented architecture (SOA) are manifested in the ability to offer flexible product platforms that can be delivered in relatively short time frames and in a cost-efficient manner, says PruHealth CIO Paulo dos Santos.
While the benefits of deploying SOA in an organisation are wide-ranging, there must be a merger of business operations and IT processes for its implementation to be successful, he notes.
According to Dos Santos, building a business case and demonstrating tangible organisational benefits for SOA are challenging and executive buy-in is one of the key issues that any CIO looking to implement SOA will have to face.
Joe Ruthven, development manager for IBM, who is scheduled to deliver a presentation at the ITWeb Enterprise SOA 2008 conference, believes knowledge on the true value of SOA is key to its successful implementation in any enterprise.
“The single most important business challenge to making SOA work is having proper alignment between business and IT. In other words, solving actual business problems in the style of SOA and not building SOA infrastructure simply because IT thinks it's a good idea,” says Ruthven.
ITWeb Enterprise SOA 2008
More information about the ITWeb Enterprise SOA 2008 conference, which takes place on 28 October at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, is available online here.
Both Ruthven and Dos Santos believe an understanding of SOA, its benefits and the value it can add to an enterprise is essential to its successful implementation.
“SOA is the DNA of a globally integrated enterprise. It is the enabling technology that allows organisations to build flexible IT infrastructures. These flexible infrastructures in turn support the ability of the organisation to adopt flexible and dynamic business processes,” Ruthven explains.
“When your processes are flexible and dynamic, your business becomes agile and responsive,” he adds.
This view is shared by Dos Santos, who believes PruHealth has successfully demonstrated the benefits of SOA over custom-built architecture.
“PruHealth has experienced several benefits of SOA; namely, increased cost-effectiveness as overall maintenance costs are reduced, increased speed of implementation as new functionality is deployed at a faster pace, lower risk with tested and proven vendor solutions and strategic implementation which provide organisations with longevity,” says Dos Santos.
SOA, its business challenges and benefits will be addressed at the ITWeb Enterprise SOA 2008 conference, on 28 October, at Gallagher Estate, Midrand.
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