Force Integration

We have written a good bit on this blog about how SOA can succeed if you pay attention  to the right stuff, like the governance issues, the business issues over the tech issues, and change management (see for example, Avoiding SOA Disillusionment - eBizQ Panel Recap).

These are some of the issues that Mike also lists as things to address with both SOA and the cloud. He goes on to say that we should focus the cloud debate on how to "tackle security and compliance, how to manage hybrid solutions, how to provide reliability and scalability, how to prevent latency, and many other important topics. But enough of the Cloud Insanity."

As with any hot technology, we have many vendors and consultants repackaging their expertise as a "miracle tonic" for Cloud Computing, without regard for the drivers that determine where it makes the most sense for business. We should apply the lessons learned from successful SOA efforts to help ensure that cloud efforts are successful (see Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud Computing with Lessons Learned from SOA).

One of the additional lessons similar to service-oriented development is the need for systematic testing that makes use of automation and virtualization as much as possible, so we can validate changing cloud-based services as part of a continuous business process. In return, Cloud computing is a boon for test labs and virtualized service environments, adding a lot of flexibility and options in how these assets are deployed for the business.