[Info-vax] Seasons Greetings

[Main, Kerry]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
> Behalf Of johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk
> Sent: January 6, 2009 3:06 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Seasons Greetings
> 


[snip..]


> >
> > >>>>>http://tinyurl.com/3crd5o
> > >>>>> "Remember Cobol? If You Don't, Get Reacquainted"
> >
> > >>>>> Extract :
> > >>>>> "In spite of its reputation, Cobol remains a resilient force in
> IT. Dale
> > >>>>> Vecchio, research director at Gartner Inc., says there are
> roughly 180
> > >>>>> billion lines of Cobol worldwide. This isn't surprising, given
> that Cobol
> > >>>>> has been around for more than 40 years. What is surprising is
> Gartner's
> > >>>>> comment in a February research note stating that 15% of all new
> application
> > >>>>> functionality through 2005 will be in Cobol."
> > >>>> Not surprising.
> >
> > >>>> If the new features is <X% of the total app, then it does not
> make
> > >>>> any sense to rewrite the entire app in a new language to add the
> > >>>> new functionality.
> >
> > >>> And if the old, much simpler language can do the job, it really
> doesn't
> > >>> make sense to use newer, more complicated technology simply
> because it
> > >>> is newer.
> > >> "can do the job" is not enough - it has to be "can do the job
> cheapest".
> >
> > > Yeah, and that usually depends on who's pocket the money is coming
> out of.
> > > If I can bill a re-write to some otehr department, it becomes the
> cheapest
> > > no matter how much it actually costs.
> >
> > That phenonomen occurs.
> >
> > Arne
> 
> Apparently you've misunderstood. SOA is dead. It must be true, its
> obituary was in a blog post at the Burton Group yesterday. Don't take
> my word for it, use the source:
> 
> http://apsblog.burtongroup.com/2009/01/soa-is-dead-long-live-
> services.html
> 
> Extract: "After investing millions, IT systems are no better than
> before. In many organizations, things are worse: costs are higher,
> projects take longer, and systems are more fragile than ever. The
> people holding the purse strings have had enough. With the tight
> budgets of 2009, most organizations have cut funding for their SOA
> initiatives.
> 
> It's time to accept reality. SOA fatigue has turned into SOA
> disillusionment. Business people no longer believe that SOA will
> deliver spectacular benefits. "SOA" has become a bad word. It must be
> removed from our vocabulary."
> 
> There are some enlightened comments too. Jeff Griffiths comment seems
> to put things particularly well in real world terms.
> _______________________________________________

As a fyi, I have access to a number of Burton subscriptions in a number
Of different areas (apps, security, network etc).

Fwiw, and imho, their publications are far and away the best analyst
publications I have come across. Their reports are fair, vendor neutral 
and are typically written with a significant amount of research by 
authors that have real world experience in the areas they specialize in.

In terms of SOA, the big issues are not technical, but rather political,
process and organizational based. 

In most organizations, there are dedicated IT resources for specific BU's,
but very few that have the focus across all BU's. Hence, while enhancing 
a specific service might be great for one BU, it may not be for another.

Hence, who will determine what service enhancement gets done first? In
addition, there are many overlapping services between the BU's.
Consolidating and/or standardizing services means one BU might need to
do significant work on an application that depends on the non-std service.

Moving forward, rather than adopting a "build it and they will come strategy",
the big $'s saving bang will come not from theoretical technical jargon, but 
rather from having smart IT people who understand the politics and how the 
various BU models operate sitting down with the BU leaders to better understand 
how IT can better support their businesses and address their biggest challenges.

When listening to these challenges, the smart IT people will recognize that
in these tough times, rather than implementing major changes in architecture, 
and app's such as replacing proven 3GL's with new OO strategies like .Net 
and J2EE, the solutions may mean better use of upgrade / integrate and web 
enabling Of existing technologies such as Cobol, other 3GL's etc. 


Regards

Kerry Main
Senior Consultant
HP Services Canada
Voice: 613-254-8911
Fax: 613-591-4477
kerryDOTmainAThpDOTcom
(remove the DOT's and AT)

OpenVMS - the secure, multi-site OS that just works.