The SOA Stimulus Package

It's no secret that SOA has been a top priority for the federal government for several years now. Back in 2006, Forrester wrote a solid report, "Why is SOA Hot in Government" outlining the value of SOA in helping to integrate program functionality and information across organizational boundaries and the benefits of wrapping legacy systems without huge, risky rip-and-replace projects for legacy applications.

What's important to note and good to see is that federal SOA projects are making traction and agencies are seeing results. Results that the private sector should take a closer look at from a best practices and benchmarking perspective.

David Linthicum pointed out the success of the government SOA efforts not long ago. In his post, he writes that 'a clear pattern of success with the U.S. government when leveraging SOA is around the governance that typically exists within and between U.S. government agencies.'

The government's approach to SOA reflects its approach to business in general. While there are agreed upon standards, protocols and processes, the biggest differentiator is not in the way these requirements frame the agency's day-to-day operations. Rather, it's in the way that they are adhered to by all the different functions throughout the agency. This is governance from a business perspective that is carried through in the IT architecture.

Of course, many commercial businesses have been talking about standards, best practices and reuse for quite some time. However, making it all come together still presents a stumbling block due to a variables such as redundant services, different architectural approaches and a general lack of visibility. These issues are largely the result of a lack of governance or worse, spotty applications of it.

While many IT vendors have been working with the government for decades, there are a host of others that are just now knocking on agency doors in hopes of tapping into some of the stimulus funds allocated to technology. Who can blame them? But applying commercial practices to federal SOA efforts may not be the best approach especially when comparing the success rates. However, the opportunity is still very ripe in the following three areas:

1. SOA expertise: while the processes and best practices may be further along, there is still a tremendous need for systems integrators and consultants with in-depth knowledge of industry standards and integration that can help accelerate the deployment.
2. Governance: okay, this is not just a WebLayers thing. Think about the massive undertaking that is required by the agencies to make SOA a reality. Without governance in place, individual agencies will see hiccups and will be unable to connect to other agencies and a larger federal SOA initiative.
3. Mainframe modernization: it's no secret that the government still relies on legacy data and mainframes. Since there's no sense in throwing the baby out with the bath water, expertise and technology that can support a SOA that encompasses the entire infrastructure including the hardware will continue to prove valuable to agencies.

-Jeff