Gartner folks must read my blog :)

A few days ago I bloged about the importance of data in the context of Connected Systems (SOA)

Today I was made aware of a webcast Gartner is doing on that topic (see abstract below)

Most organizations today are moving steadily toward implementing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for standards-based software interoperability and business flexibility. However, most organizations forget to think about the role of data within SOA and how best to manipulate data to provide seamless access to disparate sources while addressing semantic differences. SOA data challenges include, transforming data to comply with specific data models and XML schema, semantic mediation and vocabulary management, providing access to more than one data source, and data cleansing and profiling. And, doing it all in a manner that performs well.

I am really glad to see that Gartner (finally?!) recognizes the importance of manipulating/managing data as part of implementing an SOA, which by the way, is what the connected systems story with the different pillars has always been pushing (see my post in June 2005).

If they really read my blog, next thing we know, Gartner will say how important workflow will be in building an SOA, and not only at the process automation / service orchestration layer but at all the layers of the solution UI, entity layer...). Of course, Gartner will also say how crucial it is to have a service consumption strategy in addition to the service delivery side as well of mastering federated identity.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is IMO crucial to realize that complex enterprise solutions (call them SOA, Connected Systems, Dynamic Enterprise etc…) require a set of capabilities (or perspectives) that go beyond the "services" aspect of things including, data, identity, workflow… you know the rest...

P.S.

need a refresher?