WOA and glue

Dana Gardner has an interesting post about how "web oriented architecture" may be closing the window on the opportunity that is "service oriented architecture." In it, he hints at the idea that SOA is an extension of the EAI (enterprise application integration) of the late 90s, while WOA is the new and fertile ground in enterprise IT architecture.

Obviously, over here at Glue, we agree. In fact, one of the ideas behind Glue is that WOA is not only "eclipsing" other architectures, but that the big problem of EAI is happening all over again. EAI basically tried to "glue" together applications behind a firewall on a corporate network (and gave rise to a great many of the "suites" - like identity management suites - that we see today).

As WOA creeps into the enterprise, the integration (read: gluing together) of those apps becomes a ginormous problem once again. And that is one huge Glue thread.