In my last Advisor (see "Service Component Architecture," 1 February 2006, I introduced the service component architecture (SCA), a new joint industry specification that decouples the implementation of services from their assembly of components. This week's Advisor is about a special type of component: the Service Data Object (SDO), which complements SCA by providing a common way to access different kinds of data.

In the beginning, patents and copyrights were created to encourage people to invest in new inventions, books, and plays that would create new economic opportunities. These patents and copyrights were extended for a limited period to provide the inventors/creators the opportunity to profit from their investment of time, money, and, most importantly, ingenuity.

One area that many EA programs struggle with is demonstrating the value that they bring to an enterprise. A useful way to address this challenge is to think of EA as a service organization; i.e., as providing a service to the enterprise and, in particular, to specific user groups (customers) within the enterprise. To start with this approach, we first identify who the customers are and what service is provided to them.

I'm sick to death of companies that claim they're strategic technology investors when they're actually technology cheap skates. We know from industry analyses that "strategic" technology investors spend around 7%-10% of their gross revenue on technology, while companies that are considered "tactical" investors spend 1%-3% of revenue on technology. (Those in the middle I guess are "operational" investors.)

Having attended the IT Architecture Practitioners Conference last week (23-25 January), held under the auspices of the Open Group, I cannot help thinking that after many years of effort, we are still a long way from a common understanding of what an architecture really is. What is more important is that this confusion certainly does not help IT architecture professionals to effectively communicate to business what an architecture is and why it is important.

Data integration vendor Informatica Corporation has acquired data quality tools vendor Similarity Systems in a cash-for-stock deal valued at approximately US $55 million. Informatica will integrate Similarity Systems' data quality technology within its PowerCenter data integration tools line.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the loss of the shuttle Challenger. It also marks the 39th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that claimed astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chafee, and Ed White. It is also the third anniversary of the loss of the shuttle Columbia. The last week of January is always a bit sad at NASA.

You may have missed the 30 November announcement about service component architecture (SCA) or perhaps you've read all the press releases but you're still trying to figure out what it is and whether or not you should care. Since I've been noodling on this for awhile, I hope I can shed some light on the subject.

Several leading software vendors -- including BEA, IBM, IONA, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, Sybase, and Xcalia -- have worked together to make implementing SOA easier (on Java at least). To quote from the press release:

Security is an underestimated risk to corporate success (or even in some cases, survival). Among the salient points are:

Security is an ongoing process, not a state of affairs, a set of policies, or a product.

IT security is an organic part of an integrated enterprise security strategy and cannot be effective in the absence of appropriate security regimes for physical assets, staff, intellectual property, and so on.

Look around, and it is pretty easy to pick out a software product that has benefited from a conscious focus on the design elements. There is a clear consistency across different areas of the application; it works well to support the client's needs -- indeed it can be a joy to use. Under the hood, the same focus has simplified the task of building the application, and likely has reduced the time and effort in the process.

A number of important developments took place last week that are significant when it comes to the issue of securing sensitive data and the possible cost of failing to do so. Just as important, they serve to drive home a point I've made in the past: organizations must take an "all-encompassing" approach when it comes to data security.

Over the last 18 months, the collaboration market has changed radically. Many users of collaboration technologies may not be aware of these changes, but vendors in this market certainly are.

Operational risks, as you may recall, are those risks that are caused by an organization's dependency on its systems, processes, and staff. The past few weeks have been a showcase for what happens when operational risk is not managed effectively.