Recently, IDG Research Services Group surveyed more than 500 IT and business professionals to understand the driving forces and uncover the important trends in the service-oriented architecture (SOA) market. With benchmark data from a previous survey conducted one year earlier, IDG was able to quickly isolate key issues and map important trends. The survey data revealed that the SOA market space is exploding. The number of planned and active SOA projects expanded over the prior year, with more than 80% of respondents reporting SOA-related activities at their companies.

Respondents to the SOA survey demonstrated that they clearly recognize the IT and business benefits that SOA can deliver, including a more flexible enterprise and improved use of existing infrastructure. The data also showed increased user confidence in the reusable services that form the building blocks for a fully realized SOA initiative. The survey shows that the challenge facing IT managers has shifted from selling the benefits of SOA to the rest of the enterprise to devising an SOA deployment roadmap that will ensure that the enterprise gains the expected benefits, reaps the anticipated ROI, and meets or exceeds the established business goals.