Planned SOA Usage Grows Faster Than Actual SOA Usage

In our 2007 outlook for service-oriented architecture (SOA) adoption, SOA continues to deepen its penetration into the plans and implementations of enterprises and small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Twenty-one percent of North American and European (NA-EU) enterprises say that they will adopt SOA in 2007, bringing SOA penetration to 62%. Similarly, 22% of Asia Pacific (AP) enterprises and 14% of NA-EU SMBs plan to adopt SOA in 2007, bringing total penetration in these markets to 59% and 40%, respectively. But looking at data from a year ago, Forrester has reason to think that current usage might not grow quite so fast: While 14% of NA-EU enterprises said that they would adopt SOA in 2006, it seems that only 2% actually did. Still, firms broadly recognize SOA's strategic value for business transformation and business flexibility, and current users of SOA appear satisfied and expect to do more SOA, so SOA's strong market momentum will continue to build.