Web Forefront

While the moniker Open might bring thoughts of an open source software project as in GNU/Free/Linux, its far from it, Open SOA's intent is to get all the previous platform experts -- and then some -- to agree and insure a service orientated architecture amongst one another, by means of : SCA(Service Component Architecture) and SDO(Service Data Objects).

SCA and SDO are the industry's latest attempts to achieve a service orientated architecture and a quick glance at Open SOA's backers shows a who's who of the enterprise software industry : BEA, IBM, IONA, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, TIBCO and Zend Technologies(PHP), among others.

Each one of these companies in their own right, will be addressing the adoption of SCA and SDO in defining a "language-neutral programming model that meets the needs of enterprise developers who are developing software that exploits Service Oriented Architecture characteristics and benefits" as stated in Open SOA's site.

It looks as though the pros vs. cons discussions among J2EE, .NET, PHP and other platforms will be a moot point now more than ever, especially now that a precedence is being set on the use of SCA and SDO to achieve interoperability between these various platforms.

You can read further technical details on both subjects in two articles I wrote: On SDO and SCA .