According to this article in IT Business, a Canadian IT magazine, while Canada leads in many areas, SOA is not one of them. "The concept may be hot, but the adoption rate is not, according to a Canadian IDC analyst." While SOA moving steadily in the US and Europe, the mostly mid-market Canadian businesses don't feel the need, or perhaps can't afford to move into SOA just yet, according to the article. "The lag i According to this article in IT Business, a Canadian IT magazine, while Canada leads in many areas, SOA is not one of them. “The concept may be hot, but the adoption rate is not, according to a Canadian IDC analyst.” While SOA moving steadily in the US and Europe, the mostly mid-market Canadian businesses don’t feel the need, or perhaps can’t afford to move into SOA just yet, according to the article. “The lag is evident when Canadian companies are compared to their U.S. counterparts, who currently hold a strong lead in SOA adoption, said Senf. This is because Canada is primarily a mid-market country, with a manufacturing-heavy industry that tends not to be early adopters of this type of technology, he added.” “He said organizations passive to SOA view the architecture as ‘just another tool in a toolbox to get something done,’ rather than using it to transform the business.” “But therein lays the issue behind SOA adoption, because most companies don’t see its business value, nor do they feel they can afford it, or have the SOA skill set among their IT functions to deploy and maintain it, he said.” The issues are real. If you’re a small or midsize company you will find it’s hard to afford new laptops for your sales people, not to mention a systemic change in the way you do IT. Thus, many in Canada are sitting out the first waves of SOA. I actually can understand that, and don’t really think it’s a bad thing. Indeed, I run into companies all of the time that don’t have the resources to really take advantage of SOA, at least for now. Actually, I would rather have them wait and succeed later, versus attempting to do something now, with too little, and fail. The buy in for SOA is pretty high, as I’ve been saying. I suspect the Canadians will come around to SOA in their own time, and on their own terms. However, I do think some of those companies need to set up their strategy now, and do the work later. Many are doing nothing at all, and it will be tough to go through the learning curve later…believe me. Software Development