Enterprise SOA

What are the challenges and problems with existing models?

ESA simplifies the relationship between IT and business, yet standards remain as important as ever, if not even more important, to a successful deployment of ESA within any particular user organization. ESA calls for strict adherence to certain technical standards when creating enterprise services. Without standardized networking interfaces and semantic definitions, for instance, any enterprise services that an organization builds for itself will be unlikely to integrate properly with any other enterprise services, whether homegrown or acquired from SAP or its partners. Fluid integration, of course, is the primary goal of ESA. So, without the right policies and incentives in place to make sure that ESA-related standards are employed, ESA's essential value will be lost.

Standards policies are hardly a new, ESA-specific issue for IT. Enterprises have been grappling for years with how best to select, support, and enforce IT standards within their own ranks and across boundaries when dealing with suppliers, customers, and other business partners. When a corporation is powerful enough in its own industry, it can pretty much dictate the use of certain standards to any other firms with which it does business. Just look at the clout that Wal-Mart wields in retailing, as seen most recently in its mandate that suppliers must start adding a certain type of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to the pallets they send its way. At ...