When businesses talk about implementing or changing an SOA, all eyes turn to the architects. But what can the architects turn to? BEA's SOA Reference Architecture, a blueprint for scalable enterprise-wide SOA based on years of real-world experience.

If you're only building a shed, you can just get started, but delivering a skyscraper requires tremendous planning. Enterprise IT infrastructures are skyscrapers and the SOA Reference Architecture is the first step in planning. It clarifies the definition and vision of SOA, describes architectural principles and guidelines, promotes best practices, and enables more effective long-term governance.

You'll find this paper and other resources on the Arch2Arch Website, in the new SOA resource center. The redesigned Website also features centers for governance, virtualization, enterprise social computing, event-driven architecture, and SOA integration, to make it easier for you to find information on the topics of interest to you.

Find out why Forrester Research named BEA a Leader in its January 2008 The Forrester Wave™: SOA Service Life-Cycle Management, Q1 2008. If SOA governance is on your radar or in your plans, the guidelines and ratings in this report can help you make some very important decisions.

CIOs are looking at portals for consolidating applications and introducing Web 2.0 capabilities. See for yourself: BEA Systems' annual report on the enterprise portal market includes survey data on deployment and adoption from more than 540 BEA portal customers, plus a synthesis of more than 100 analyst reports and industry articles. Also, check out the latest Gartner report: Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portal Products, 2007. BEA Systems has been positioned in the “leaders” quadrant of the portal report.

Is SOA integration the same as Enterprise Service Bus? Does it only integrate SOAP or Web Services? Does it simply connect your SOA into mine? No, no, and no (but nice try). Find out what it means, what it solves, and what it can do for your IT organization.

Enterprise social computing challenges long-held assumptions about business value and applications. This article by John Brunswick can help you get your bearings in this new Web 2.0 world and understand how authoring environments focused on end users fit into an enterprise. If you're evaluating collaboration software, you should also check out Gartner's first-ever Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration and Social Software, 2007, which covers new Web 2.0 technology initiatives and vendors.

It's unscripted. It's unrehearsed. It's everything your SOA shouldn't be. Control Panel is a new ongoing podcast series bringing you bite-size chunks of SOA governance insight and expertise from a rotating panel of experts—in 10 minutes or less.

The right SOA governance model for any organization depends on the specific goals and the specific environment. In the latest blog in the SOA governance series, Bob Rhubart explains that it's all a matter of balance.

You probably hear it all the time: innovate, add value, enhance accessibility. In this Webinar, Butler Group and BEA Systems explore how these demands are putting pressure on your application environments—and what you can do about it.

T-Mobile Hungary created an open, standards-based framework and a unified desktop portal, which is already delivering faster business process execution. British Airways deployed BEA WebLogic Server® to create a highly interactive, easy-to-use Web environment, with advanced functionality. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance consolidated views of key customer information to hundreds of call center agents and representatives, increasing business by about 40 percent.