Ugh! That was my reaction when I first read about "SOA 2.0". As Mark Little wrote "Giving an architectural approach a version number is crazy: it makes no sense at all!"
And please, do we need any more confusion on the relationship between SOA and EDA? I think not. And I’m not alone. Neil Dutton-Ward at Macehiter Ward-Dutton has created an online petition to "Stop the Madness". The petition reads as follows:
We’ve created this online petition because we’re dumbfounded at the attempt by certain parts of the IT industry to create and give weight to the term "SOA 2.0".
We and others have blogged about this already: Joe McKendrick, Mark Little, and Duane Nickull to name but three.
As Duane said recently: "Normally, when someone comes out with a new buzzword that doesn’t really have any substance, most people merely complain quietly and go about their business."
We would dearly love, just this once, for things to be different. Industry does not, at this point, need more confusion around SOA. SOA has real value, but industry at large is only just coming to terms with what it means and what it can do. Inventing terms like "SOA 2.0" might help some analysts and vendors make money, but overall, in the long run it damages us all.
In part, this petition is an experiment. Many people have discussed the power of the Web to aggregate and demonstrate the power of individuals: but it would be good to see if, through this simple web page, we could pressure the protagonists into backtracking on SOA 2.0.
I encourage practitioners who are sick of the hype, and looking for real information/ammunition to introduce/extend SOA in your business to click through this link, and sign the petition. (Just don’t double submit as I mistakenly did).