News

IBM Opening SOA Leadership Centers Worldwide

• By Chris Kanaracus
• January 15, 2007

IBM on Monday announced it plans to open a number of SOA Leadership Centers around the world.

Two of them will be located in Dubai, UAE and La Gaude, France, according to an IBM release. More centers are expected to open in Asia, North America, South America and Northern Europe.

The centers will provide training and education regarding service-oriented architectures and give support for SOA implementation efforts. They will also host SOA exhibitions and demonstrations, according to the release.

“Opening these centers is a direct response to customer demand,” Jason Weisser, vice president and chief technology officer, SOA advance technology, IBM, said in a statement. “… Partnering with local universities will also be a major focus of the centers, with a goal of building SOA skills in the emerging work force in these key markets.”

Local students can undergo internships at the centers, working with SOA technologies and attending educational courses, according to the release.

Analyst Judith Hurwitz says the announcement represents the latest evidence of IBM’s education-oriented SOA push. “Clearly, IBM is making this a central focus of their SOA strategy. They’re putting a lot into it,” she says.

The company already has SOA centers in the United States. In September, IBM and Georgetown announced they had created a pair of SOA-focused curricula, Hurwitz noted.

Hurwitz says the company’s approach makes sense: “SOA requires a lot of retooling and rethinking about how you think about IT. It’s very hard, because people get stuck in their own ruts and get caught up in maintaining their own systems, things like that. It really does require guidance.”