The number of companies planning or executing SOA deployments on a Java platform increased slightly during the last six months while those planning to build SOA implementations on .NET decreased by almost 20% according to a new Evans Data survey of developers and IT managers actively working on Web Services. .NET deployments for SOA were still ahead with 31% targeting that platform, but with 28% now expecting to target Java technologies; the rival platforms are virtually tied. Almost one in five companies are expecting to support both.

“There’s currently a lot of activity in the Open Source world, and particularly in the Eclipse communities, around SOA,” said John Andrews, CEO of Evans Data Corp. “Most of the major players in that space are introducing new solutions aimed at SOA, and they are almost invariably Java-based. Open Source SOA looks poised to become a real force in the industry and consequently a serious contender to .NET.”