I figured this would happen. With the birth of a new three letter acronym (TLA), in this case WOA (Web Oriented Architecture), there are some that are pushing back and missing the point entirely. Case in point is a recent article by Michael Meehan "Does WOA bring anything new to SOA?" . Normally, Michael is spot on, but he is a bit off target here. Michael recently polled some architects about the notion of WOA, I figured this would happen. With the birth of a new three letter acronym (TLA), in this case WOA (Web Oriented Architecture), there are some that are pushing back and missing the point entirely. Case in point is a recent article by Michael Meehan “Does WOA bring anything new to SOA?” . Normally, Michael is spot on, but he is a bit off target here. Michael recently polled some architects about the notion of WOA, and reported back the results. “…but I figured I should ask a few architects what they think of the concept to see if it’s got traction in those circles. Granted, I only polled half a dozen people (though I’ll note here that they are half a dozen really smart people). The response I got from all of them is that WOA strikes them as redundant and nothing particularly new, an empty suit if you will.” The problem with concepts such as WOA, is that they need to come with some education. I mean, SOA was really nothing new, but it provided us with a different way of thinking about things we already understood. Same with WOA. Thus, the responses Michael received where a bit mixed as you might expect. “One wrote, ‘It reminds me a lot of the attempt by someone to gain some name recognition with the ‘SOA 2.0’ Another responded, ‘It’s the same old thing, relabeled with an even MORE unwieldy name.’ Yet another noted, ‘This is just composite Web apps.'” As I’ve been stating for the last 5 years, SOA should extend out of the firewall to the Internet, if you’re to provide real value to your enterprise. However, this was not universally accepted by the rank-and-file SOA guys. Indeed, generally speaking most viewed SOA as something that occurred within the firewall exclusively, and extending the reach of their SOA to Internet-based resources was taboo. Thus, the notion of WOA is really SOA using Web-based resources including services, applications, directories, tools, etc.., and the general acceptance that it’s okay to place business processes outside of the firewall. Not sure if anyone is selling this as a replacement to SOA, or traditional enterprise architecture, but it’s really an approach to architecture where there is a core acceptance that Web-based resources may provide the most speed to delivery, the largest number of resources, and with minimum amount cost. That’s it. I don’t care what you call it, but it does help us think a bit differently about this approach, and right now it’s getting into some pretty thick heads that this may be the way to go for a portion of their architecture. More responses: “Not a single one of them voiced a problem with the notion that Web-based development is an excellent place to concentrate your resources. In fact, some of the architects stated they are eagerly pursuing these sorts of development strategies.” I would argue that while many architects are indeed looking at Web-based development, most don’t want to go there in a big way, or understand why they should go there. What will occur, however, is a grassroots movement to WOA, and they will reluctantly follow. I remember how many years that the architects I was dealing with back in the early 90s pushed back on the Web, before finally understanding its value. Same issue here, new decade. So, relax. WOA is a new term offering a new way to think about new things, in the context of old things. Don’t get wrapped up in the TLA, get wrapped up in the value it could bring. Software Development