Most IT directors look to SOA to cut costs

Benefits of sharing services and processes recognised

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The majority of businesses will embrace Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in an effort to cut costs, a new survey has revealed.

The results show that most IT directors understand how SOA can enable businesses to identify and re-use critical services, especially in light of the recession. Out of the 100 UK-based IT directors surveyed, 83 percent said they will use SOA to cut costs, and 40 percent planned to implement SOA governance within the next year.

IT directors across multiple industries were questioned for the survey by business infrastructure software company Software AG in December 2009.

Tim Holyoake, lead technologist at Software AG, said: "Tough economic challenges have forced many businesses to break free from traditional application constraints and re-use existing systems to help keep costs down.

"Effective enterprise architecture linked to SOA governance ensures the best possible return on new software investments, rather than simply throwing money away on like for like replacement software."

The survey also showed that 83 percent of firms were most concerned about business effectiveness in 2010. Furthermore, a total 82 percent of respondents believed that modernisation would be the software investment most likely to achieve the greatest efficiency to their organisation.

"SOA will help businesses drastically drive down operational costs by sharing services and processes intelligently across heterogeneous environments," said Holyoake.

IDC, the analyst house, recently predicted that business spending on SOA will grow by up to 25 per cent worldwide by 2013.