SOA: The fact remains that measuring SOA success is not easy. One proposed manner is to look at the backlog of IT requests. That has David Linthicum writing that, “in thinking about the ROI around SOA we need to think at a bit more sophisticated level,” noting that using IT backlogs is a bit after the fact, in this Real World SOA entry. “The fact of the matter is that the core benefit of SOA is agility. If you have agility, then you have the ability to change the architecture as the business needs changes. Thus, if you have IT backlogs, naturally they will decrease because it’s easier to make these changes.” Columnist’s corner: Are VCs stiffing enterprise technology? Perhaps. Research from Goldman Sachs, based on interviews with venture capitalists, determined that “from 2004-2006, VCs reduced their funding of enterprise-type technologies including storage, servers, software, and networking equipment in favor of the sexier Web, wireless, video, and SMB technology areas,” David Margulius offers in A cooling economy chills innovation. “How much should enterprises care what VCs do, anyway? These ivory-tower moneymen actually missed the single biggest enterprise vendor success story of the decade anyhow: VMWare (turned it down).”Sustainable IT: Practicing green IT can, sometimes, have a monetary advantage, while other times the bonus is plain old eco-friendliness, Ted Samson points out in Case study: Clean-energy plan proves too risky for 365 Main customers. 365 Main attempted to create a datacenter fueled by natural-gas-powered generators but found that, even though it would not cost prospective clients a dime, customers were unwilling due to uptime concerns. “The lesson in all this appears to be that, despite the interest in environmental stewardship espoused by so many companies, many of them aren’t as eager to push the green envelope if there’s even a minute risk to affecting the bottom line.” Technology Industry