There has long been an argument about the pros and cons associated with choosing best-of-breed solutions as opposed to going for a suite of products all based on a common platform, which may not individually represent best-of-breed capability but represents a market leading platform. No doubt, this argument will continue to rage for years to come but the latest twist on it is that you don't need a platform if you have SOA (service oriented architecture). How valid is this position?

Leaving aside commercial considerations (which are not necessarily inconsiderable) the historical downside of a best-of-breed approach is that you tend to end up with siloed applications that have difficulty communicating with one another. The argument for web services and SOA is that enables the necessary inter-communication and that, therefore, your applications are no longer siloed. As a result it is fine to opt for best-of-breed solutions and it is fine for vendors to focus in this way.