This post brought to you by the number 2
Via Mike Gunderloy (who pound-for-pound I think might be the most useful feed in all the subscribable land):
Former Dot-Com Commerce One Eyes Closure - Remember Commerce One? They used to be worth $20 billion back when we were all insane. Now they're down to their last $700,000 and expect to go belly-up without paying suppliers or shareholders. Keep this in mind before you invest too much in SOA or any other Next Big Thing technology.
Bubble-bursting flameouts are a well-worn chesnut by this point, but Mike makes a good point that never gets old. Lemmings and us: we're consistently wrong about the next big thing, at least as groups go. I might be inclined to give SOA a pass on some grounds (file under something borrowed, something blue, etc.), but diversity and skepticism have concrete value that hype cycles tend to obscure. If it's the Next Big Thing, it generally proves that by itself.
Once upon a time I worked at a company we had a strategy exec who spoke only in acronymns containing the number 2. He used to gargle in people's ears all day about how we needed to partner with Commerce One and Ariba and [insert B2B play here]. I try to invoke the memory of this guy whenever I find myself thinking of the last part of the 20th century through overly rosy prisms.