Free Whitepaper on the ROI of SOA

One of the most difficult aspects of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is demonstrating tangible return on investment (ROI). Many folks concede that SOA is more of a long term value proposition than traditional architectural approaches, but that doesn't do much to lower the blood pressure of the business sponsors footing the bill. SOA programs need strong business backing to be successful, so SOA advocates need to be able to convince the business, and keep them convinced, that it is the right way to go.

I recently wrote a whitepaper that compares the fundamental economics of SOA versus classic point-to-point enterprise architecture. It puts a few simple but powerful concepts and mathematical formulas behind the oft discussed but seldom quantified differences between the two disciplines. My goal was to offer the IT community an objective analysis of the economics of SOA and a simple model for understanding and tracking its ROI over time. These concepts have helped me through many strategy meetings and I hope they can do the same for others. Here is a link to the free download (no registration required):

Bottom Line SOA: The Economics of Agility

All I ask in return for the free download is a bit of constructive feedback, either as a comment on this blog or directly to me at marc@marcrix.com. Also, this paper will be appearing in the June issue of SOAWorld magazine and I will be presenting it in person at the SOAWorld 2007 conference in New York City in late June. I look forward to your comments.