For enterprises, the adoption of SOA provides significant potential to improve the value they derive from their IT investments, in terms of increased flexibility, improved use of assets, alignment with business objectives, and reduced integration costs.

"The high adoption rate of SOA has attracted a large and diverse set of software vendors to compete for market share in the provision of the supporting infrastructure. As the market starts to mature it is inevitable that vendor consolidation, which is already significant, will accelerate further," says Rob Hailstone, Software Infrastructure Practice Director at Butler Group.