Datasheet

9
Chapter 1: Get ting to Know SOA
reality by using SOA. Together, IT and business leaders can determine a strat-
egy that both liberates business from IT and allows IT to create maintainable,
extensible, compliant systems to support the initiatives determined by
business leaders.
Tech Lib
Just because business has become constrained by technology, don’t think
that the folks in IT are having a jolly old time basking in their new-found
power. On the contrary, the IT staff gets to spend its time in endless meet-
ings accounting for why projects are late, explaining why applications can’t
easily be adapted to changing business conditions, and pleading for more
staff. When some clever marketer presents a new concept for selling more
widgets via the Internet or mobile devices or some other new channel, IT
management is always the wet blanket, having to explain why (despite the
company’s investment in all the latest software and hardware) it will take 18
months to implement the new plan.
With SOA, business and IT have a way to meet each other half-way and col-
laborate using a business focused approach to develop new ways to use
technology to grow the firm, help to spot new trends and opportunities, and
see new ideas to fruition. But before you go marching off to save the world,
though, we have some more explaining to do. A story will help.
A SOA Case Study
Once upon a time, there was an insurance company called ABC Insurance
Incorporated. When ABC was born — oh, maybe 150 years ago — it began
by selling insurance policies to factories and manufacturers. In those days,
there were no computers to mess things up. The company followed business
processes that were pretty simple. A nice person sent a letter inquiring about
a policy. A smart person set a rate, sold a policy, and hoped that nothing
caught fire or blew up. ABC thrived for more than 100 years.
But then, things got complicated. Other companies started stealing ABC’s
business. Customers were asking for insurance for different kinds of risk. ABC
had to change or die.
ABC was an early user of punch-card accounting systems. In the 1960s, ABC
bought computers, hired programmers, and built software applications to
support its business. In the 1980s, it bought software packages from different
05_376843-ch01.indd 905_376843-ch01.indd 9 12/2/08 11:50:31 PM12/2/08 11:50:31 PM