Insights For CIOs: SOA And Beyond

The worst CIO misunderstanding about service-oriented architecture (SOA) is thinking of it as only another technical initiative for software reuse. Although SOA's reuse potential is real and good, its business impact goes much further: In Forrester surveys, 38% of Global 2000 SOA users say they are using it for strategic business transformation. SOA's true source of power is in its business design models, not its technology — and this means that SOA provides a broad foundation for a much-larger shift in business technology (BT) architecture that goes far beyond SOA itself. By correctly understanding SOA, CIOs can lead their organizations on a solid and well-managed path toward a strategic technology future and greater business value.