You can tell that it's a slow time a year for IT, when you see articles like Sandy Carter's post "Is Santa the Original SOA Architect?" Actually, pretty cute.

"… perhaps we could all learn some important lessons about building a service oriented architecture by taking a closer look at one of the first and most successful SOA projects. This project is representative of a Smart SOA strategy, is based in the North Pole and was initiated by Santa Claus to better manage his workshop.

Here are 10 reasons why Santa's SOA is exemplary:"

She goes on to list a few things such as:

"3. BPM support: has built in business process management (BPM) capabilities to streamline and ensure consistency of toy manufacturing and distribution."

4. Flexibility: enables The Workshop to easily anticipate and respond to sudden spikes in end-of-year activity without resulting in any hiccups in workflow.

5. Reusability: the SOA takes advantage of reusable services so that employees can accommodate consistent customer requests (dolls, teddy bears) as well as easily manage and integrate new requests (Wii, DVD player) using the same, proven best practices."

However, the best one is:

10. Everybody knows that SANTA is an acronym for the North Pole's SOA approach: Strategic Architecture, Not Tactical Achievements.

Truth be told I'm not sure Santa has anything to do with SOA based on the fact that I've never seen a turned on computer in his sleigh, and I hear that the WiFi at the North Pole is only 802.11b not 802.11g. Moreover, the need for agility is low considering that they run the same damm business processes year-to-year, not much changes. Also, I would like for the EEOC to look into the enslavement of "little people" up there. Oh sure, they look happy, but I bet they are pissed. You need happy end users to make a SOA work…you need to change the people with the technology.

So, I would love to have Santa as a SOA mentoring client, I bet I can get efficiency up at least 35 percent, and also find that Tonka Truck I wanted when I was 8 that never showed up. My parents told me it fell out of his sleigh before takeoff…we'll see.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on December 14, 2007 04:40 AM