SOA Is Far From Dead — But It Should Be Buried

Sparked by a tinderbox of economic jitters and technology backlash, a recent thread of industry discussion cries out, "SOA is dead!" Although many have had fun with the discussion, it is in fact quite misguided. No prior industry initiative for IT architecture has had an impact as positive and broad-reaching as service-oriented architecture (SOA). But SOA's impact is only part of the story: You have many more technology initiatives besides SOA. You need a bigger architectural vision that encompasses SOA, business process management, event processing, Web 2.0, and much more besides. Although SOA is far from dead, it should be buried inside a larger vision. Forrester set the foundation of such a vision in 2005 with Digital Business Architecture.