HP unveils SOA strategy

HP has announced a major update to its service orientated architecture

HP has today announced a major update to its service oriented architecture (SOA) strategy featuring new consultancy services, an updated version of its recently acquired Systinet SOA service registry product, and new details on how it plans to integrate its various SOA management suites.

As part of the new strategy the company said it would expand its SOA services portfolio through the addition of new services, methodologies and templates designed to help customers set up a SOA Centre of Excellence to support SOA deployments.

Alain Zahm, principal consultant at HP Services, said that setting up an SOA centre of excellence provided firms with the best means of tackling the skills shortages and lack of managerial oversight that have dogged some SOA deployments.

He added that HP has also launched a free online questionnaire that it had developed alongside analyst firm IDC designed that aims to help firms assess their current SOA maturity. "IT allows them to quickly see where they are against their industry peers and other respondents and provides them with information on what needs to be done to reach the next level of maturity," said Zahm.

Tim Jennings, research director at analysts Butler Group, welcomed the new services claiming that any attempt to educate IT departments about SOA technologies should help bolster adoption.

"Over the last 18 months we have done a number of surveys looking at barriers to SOA adoption," he said. "We found that lack of knowledge, lack of budget, lack of clear benefits and immaturity of the technology were initially the top concerns, but that concern over each of those areas has decreased rapidly with the exception of worries about a lack of knowledge amongst IT staff. That's why attempts to educate the market and advice about setting up SOA centres of excellence are welcome."

Separately, the company reiterated its claims that its recent acquisition of governance software vendor Mercury, which itself required SOA specialist Systinet last year, has given it a portfolio capable of supporting the entire SOA lifecycle.

Roman Stanek, director of SOA for Europe, Middle East and Africa at the company, said that Systinet's service registry and policy management capabilities for SOA environments provided governance capabilities, while software testing capabilities, primarily from Mercury, delivered testing and deployment capabilities, and HP's Business Availability Centre for SOA completed the life cycle by delivering real time monitoring, management and modelling capabilities.

HP also announced an update to its Systinet service registry, Systinet 2.51, which includes new lifecycle management and workflow capabilities and enhanced policy management functionality that allows firms to apply policies to given services. Ian Bromehead of HP said that the ability to have all service policies in put and recorded in the Systinet registry would make it far easier for firms to keep track of their various services and deploy service level agreements governing their performance.