Proprietary SOA Presents Software Challenges for Utilities

Proprietary SOA is out there. And these implementations don't link very well with other service-oriented architecture (SOA) systems. The proprietary SOA mentality held by utilities, energy companies and the vendors who serve them has made these utilities are victims of generational evolution. As mentioned in the introduction, these utilities employ various different platforms and applications that were installed over time. In addition, we talked a little bit in the introduction about the deregulation movement, how it began, and the impact it has had on utility-industry information systems.

The Impact of Competition in a Proprietary SOA Environment

Proprietary SOA is not the only IT challenge utilities face -- or, at least, it is not the whole picture. Today, roughly half of the states in the U.S. have some type of competition at the retail level; it isn't very widespread. Competition at the wholesale level, on the other hand, is considerably more prevalent. And the nature and impact of this competition varies among the types of industry groupings concerned, electric vs. natural gas, for example.

Utilities find themselves in a confusing business and technological environment today. Utility business leadership itself still is evolving. Traditionally, utilities were operated primarily by engineers and others with technical backgrounds. And while these utilities (under this sort of technical leadership) functioned quite well as regulated entities with guaranteed rates of return, they have not managed to cope so effectively with the complex business environment that has evolved in the transition from heavy regulation to the era free enterprise and competition. The effects of this new, complex, confusing business environment are worsened by the lack of visibility that management has into the operation of its business. The root of this business "opacity" is primarily the lack of integration among functional and application silos and the proliferation of multiple generations of legacy systems within the enterprise: i.e., "generational evolution".

Proprietary SOA In Perspective

While proprietary SOA has hampered utilities from gaining all the promises of the architecture -- preventing them, for example, from being able to integrate with other SOA systems in the case of frequent mergers and acquisitions -- it has not, in and of itself, been the only challenge utility-industry IT departments have faced in recent years. Deregulation and resulting competition has put new strains on management -- strains which are made worse by business opacity. And this business opacity cannot be solved by the inflexible, proprietary SOA implementations of the past. The next tutorial, therefore, takes a look at what utilities really need from SOA.

For More Information

Proprietary SOA got you down? Break through the barriers imposed by application silos and "brittle" integration solutions. Find out more: download the free webinar, Will SOA Benefit The Energy & Utility Industry?