Gartner's SOA Governance MQ: Good Guidance on Guidance

Well, the long awaited Gartner Magic Quadrant on SOA Governance was released yesterday. As expected, the Gartner report delves into the current leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players.

While Gartner has its copyright rules that I won't dare disturb, I would like to share the news that WebLayers has made its debut in the leaders quadrant of this annual Gartner MQ.

The official report title, "Magic Quadrant for Integrated SOA Governance Technology Sets" provides an interesting view on the rising importance of SOA governance and related technologies as the recession gets deeper and the need for cost optimization rises. I am sure Gartner's lawyers were in over drive prepublication as this appears to me an objective view...Kudos Frank Kenney, I am sure it ruffled some big feathers here and there.

From our view, what this means in the bigger picture actually underscores three key points about the business of governance that we've been saying all along.

1. Governance goes beyond the SOA realm. Sure, governance is a natural fit for a service oriented architecture yet that's not the only use for it as it can strengthen the entire software development lifecycle.
2. There's a yet untapped potential for governance when it comes to offshoring because it can identify and correct potential and costly mistakes in design and coding long before they're returned back to corporate headquarters.
3. Along the same vein as point number two, visibility is key when it comes to doing more with less. Without it, you’re relegated to making business decisions without all the facts. So visibility, as a result of "active policies" and automated guidance reduces I.T. risk - Bottom line.

So why is it that governance gets more traction when times are hard? Could be one of those silver linings that you find during the recession when we know we have to 'hunker down' and learn to be lean and mean.

Or it could be a matter of semantics if you ask me. Isn't it funny how people tend to wince when they hear the term governance yet feel a bit more at ease when you talk about guidance?

Jeff