The SOA concept—developing a software architecture based on service components that can be mixed and matched as needed to reduce development time and increase application deployment flexibility—is only a few years old, but the providers of SOA-supporting infrastructure are fast consolidating. Oracle captured the headlines with its acquisition of BEA Systems this spring, and Progress Software recently bought Iona Technologies.

That means the choices for infrastructure providers—from enterprise service buses (ESBs) to shared code repositories— is shrinking just as more companies are exploring SOA. A few vendors such as IBM and Oracle now offer the convenience of a soup-to-nuts SOA platform, but at the risk of locking in their customers to a proprietary stack or selling them more than they need as part of a suite or package.