Frank Cohen

Frank Cohen's Blog

This morning I received a message from TechTarget telling me that SearchWebServices.com is renaming itself to SearchSOA.com. According to TechTarget the move is in line with a shift of attitudes and efforts within the application development community.

As I've written many times, SOA is not Web Services. This move is a signal that application developers are voting with their feet.

I wish TechTarget well.

-Frank

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Email from Mark Walter of TechTarget:

In 2001, the application development community was focused on web services. The buzz was all around SOAP-based inter-application connections, and best practices for designing an optimal underlying architecture were largely viewed as an afterthought.

Since then, we've seen the market shift considerably. Service-oriented architecture is a top-of-mind concern for IT architects and managers. In fact, a recent survey of more than 280 SearchWebservices.com members revealed that 82% of respondents labeled SOA an important priority in their organization, with 56% highlighting it as very or extremely important.

SearchWebServices.com has been on the forefront of the paradigm shift. In the last 24 months, we've expanded coverage beyond one-off web services projects to focus on the greater picture of SOA. Our editorial content provides insight into all the key areas of SOA, including business process management, SOA governance, data integration, and more. The site's prestige in the community is recognized by leading experts who regularly contribute tips and articles, including David Linthicum, Managing Partner at Zapthink; and Anne Thomas Manes, VP and Research Director of the Burton Group. And over 160,000 unique visitors turn to SearchWebservices.com each month to learn practical, hands-on advice; industry best practices; and real-world examples that they can use for their current and future SOA projects.

In an effort to better reflect the breadth and scope of our editorial mission, I'm proud to announce that beginning October 18th, SearchWebServices.com will now be SearchSOA.com. We believe this is an important step in fulfilling our role as the number one source for SOA resources and information. SearchSOA.com will focus on continuing to educate architects, IT and application development managers, software project managers, senior IT executives, business analysts and enterprise architects on the key happenings in this rapidly expanding space, and to provide them with even more valuable insight into how to successfully implement the concepts that comprise SOA.

As part of this shift in our site strategy, the SearchSOA.com team will focus on bringing our advertisers even more SOA-focused sponsorship opportunities in 2008. Among the first programs we're excited to announce is the Pragmatic SOA Governance seminar, a day-long event scheduled for three cities in February 2008. The seminars series will give you an opportunity to engage with a pre-qualified, invite-only audience of more than 80 to 100 senior architects, IT managers, directors/VPs and C-level executives per city that have purchase influence over SOA-related products and services and are currently involved or actively planning an SOA project. As a compliment to this seminar series, SearchSOA.com will host our first virtual seminar dedicated entirely to SOA Governance in March 2008. Please don't hesitate to contact your TechTarget account executive for additional details.

On behalf of the SearchSOA.com team, I look forward to partnering with you in facilitating community knowledge and steering enterprise SOA adoption and implementation.

Best Regards, Mark Walter, VP & Publisher Application Development Media Group