The State of SOA - Quick Summary

Here's a quick summary of what I've seen recently in the SOA space:

1. Styles
A. HTTP / XML-RPC / AddToCart *** xml over http
B. HTTP / Post / Cart/Add *** REST Rules!!
C. AnyTransport / SOAP WS-Hdr / AddToCart *** SOAP Rules!!
D. AnyTransport / SOAP WS-Hdr / POST / Cart *** SOAP with WS-Transfer Rules!!
E. All of the above (we'll use a bump in the network to translate between them)

2. BPEL
A. If you can't put J in front of it than it doesn't exist (J-BPEL). You "J" people are so myopic. No, you "X" people insist on doing things the hard way.
B. "When I say we support BPEL, what I mean is that we support X/Lang."
C. "So, the really powerful part about BPEL is Abstract Processes... What??? Is that why none of the vendors did an implementation???"

3. Vendors
A. Our CTO quit and then the team working on the ESB quit; other than that we're on schedule.
B. Startups: We have a better product!! So what - we have customers, and have already hit 10 million in revenue - go suck an egg.
C. Oh shit, this web service thing is for real. Let's go acquire someone with our devalued stock.

4. Analysts
A. ZapThink said "blah blah blah"... A recent report from ZapThink stated, "blah blah blah" and the market size is going to be "blah blah blah".
B. All others said, " ".

5. Consultants
A. "Yippee!!!"
B. "If we keep changing the specs, perhaps the offshore people won't be able to keep up!"

6. Offshore People
A. "Yippee!!"
B. "If they keep changing the specs, there is no way the customer can afford to keep using the onshore guys!"

7. Grids
A. Who cares about service oriented; it is about 'resource oriented'.
B. IBM: "A grid is a device whereby our consultants bill you on a regular basis; hence the billing is - on demand."

8. Fortune 500
A. "We're going to have a meeting to discus our SO [fill in blank]."
B. "The budget around our SO [fill in blank] looks good for 2005.
C. "Let's tell our big vendors that lost all their people to acquire some of these little guys, then convince the offshore contractors to team up with onshore consultants while partnering with the merged ISV's; I'm sure that will work out..."

All good fun.