Analysts practically wear themselves out saying "service-oriented architecture is something you do, not something you buy," but during last week's Burton Group Catalyst Conference it became clear too many users are trying to take <A HREF="http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid26_gci1263065,00.html?track=sy80">a shortcut to SOA by buying the latest got-to-have-it software package.</A>
Burton analysts stressed that you don't need to chase after some enterprise service bus with every possible widget or try to support the latest chic Web services standards in order to achieve service orientation.
"SOA is an enterprise architecture style, not an application architecture style," said Anne Thomas Manes, Burton Group vice president and research director. She estimated it could take 20 years to realize all the benefits of service orientation.