Joe McKendrick posted last week about whether open source or SOA is killing the software industry faster, right on the heels of a couple of articles in eWeek about how E-Trade is switching to open source (E-Trade’s not just implementing Linux, which would hardly raise an eyebrow these days, but also components higher up in the stack, such as web server, application server and transaction management software).
From the point of view of the software industry, these are both disruptive technologies that fundamentally change the way that business is done. Funny, after all these years of introducing disruptive technologies to other businesses that resulted in some pretty major upheavals, software companies are getting it back in spades.
As for SOA and other technologies that make software development faster and easier, I say “bring it on”. I have little tolerance for systems integrators (or the professional services arm of software vendors) that won’t use newer, better technology when it makes them less money, although there are a few of them that seem to get it.