IBM and HP are locked in a war these days to see who the biggest IT company on the planet can be and service-oriented architecture has become a major battlefield. Both companies are looking to crack the $100 billion mark in annual revenues this year and this week both will be pitching the latest in their SOA programs.

IBM has long been on the SOA bandwagon. In fact it could be argued that IBM invented the SOA bandwagon. SOA is now infused throughout IBM's software platform. Its WebSphere, Tivoli and Rational lines literally ooze SOA from every pore. Behind the software, IBM has an army of Global Services consultants. Sometimes it's argued that IBM's software portfolio is so vast you need an army of Global Services consultants to make sense of it, but no one accuses Big Blue of having a half-hearted commitment to SOA. The resources it's put into service orientation are nothing short of massive.