SOA has been an enterprisewide rallying cry for the past few years, as companies have sought to unlock Web services’ potential to augment the value of existing IT resources. Yet most activity around service-oriented architecture has been limited to discussion, study, planning, and small projects. 2007, however, will witness a significant surge in SOA spending, as early adopters evolve POC (proof of concept) implementations into more robust deployments and late adopters buy into the architectural shift. Lack of insight and foresight, however, will spur many enterprises to divert too many dollars to areas that will prove less fruitful in ensuring the long-term success of their SOA.

First, too much will be spent on hype — again. Many who should be heads-down in their own requirements will get caught playing “follow the buzzword” or “manage by magazine.” This means excesses for steering committees, conferences, and POCs to the detriment of real work getting done.