The early days of SOA were all about taking emerging Web applications in a new direction - building enterprise mash-ups out of internal enterprise services that would expose and connect themselves using automated directories.

With the rise of Web 2.0, however, the scope for enterprise SOA has expanded considerably as startups use seamless global integration to build new approaches to standard corporate functions – and rapidly build up massive customer bases that show the unifying power of SOA and Web 2.0.

All this means one thing: it’s no longer mandatory for corporate applications to be big, bulky and monolithic. Companies can use SOA techniques to add new social-based, scheduling and other functions to their existing applications. And while this might smack of the problematic best-of-breed approach of yesteryear – and the massive integration burden it incurred – SOA standards have done away with that technique’s biggest downside.

Easier integration with online services now makes it easier for companies to experiment with new functionality, add it to specific parts of the business, get rid of it if it doesn’t suit long-term, and build strong links with modules that prove their worth. Indeed, the biggest challenge facing companies is simply identifying business processes where participation in existing Web 2.0 ventures may well complement corporate directives, saving application development teams the bother and expense of building their own services.

In Australia, where SOA has steadily developed into something of a cult following for many organizations, BRW magazine recently released a list of the country’s top 100 Web 2.0 firms – typically, companies that have started out in an Australian city and expanded to the US or other countries. The list, which can be found in detail here, highlights a range of ventures whose success, if not their sophistication, are well worth considering as part of an overall SOA effort – no matter what country you’re in.

Here are a few:

• 88miles offers time-tracking, project allocation, punching in and punching out, and more for tracking employees’ day-to-day movements and time expenditures.
• Atlassian has built a platform that uses a wiki based platform to enable social networking and content management. Tools for developers provide ready-made platforms for issue management, code analysis, source code management, enterprise wikis, single sign-on and identity management.
• engagd provides a range of Web services that profile the relevance of particular content to readers. Known as ‘attention awareness’, engagd offers developers a full SDK and console for easy integration with SOA projects and, as an example, is implemented through the companion particls.
• Feedity is an easy way to keep employees updated of changes to policies, procedures, and other content; generates RSS feeds for Web sites that don’t have their own.
• Flogd provides easy setup of online product shops for integration into companies’ own pages
• Genbook is an online booking and appointments system for small businesses
• Invoiceplace creates and tracks invoices, quotations, and payments
• MeBeam offers a Web-based video conferencing service between up to 16 people simultaneously. Can replace expensive proprietary video services and collaboration for ad-hoc conferences for customer support, staff training, product development team meetings, executive linkups, and more.
• RememberTheMilk provides shareable to-do lists that extend across the Web, mobiles and instant messaging. Easily adaptable for task management, delegation and follow-up.
• RosterLive provides online workforce management capabilities, including rostering and attendance.
• Tangler hosts live discussion forums on any topic you choose. Integrate with company intranets to encourage employee collaboration or to give customers a place to vent.
• Vastpark lets you get creative, building customised 3D interactive virtual worlds that can be used to host business meetings, training sessions, and more

Not all of these will suit your business, and not all can be integrated to the same extent using SOA. But all can be worked into your own online presence, showing the importance of thinking outside the intranet for companies hoping to succeed in the Web 2.0 world.

Strategies for integrating these services into your own environment will vary; data governance and privacy issues obviously must be addressed before you commit too much to a third-party provider. Nonetheless, the steady rise of these types of sites – and, remember, these ideas all came from just one country – illustrates Web 2.0’s extensive possibilities.

It’s hoping for a bit too much to say these services will bring your SOA project to a clanging conclusion, but they may offer invaluable help in filling out functional holes that would otherwise require extensive investment in coding, testing, and upgrading.

Conversely, your SOA team’s development efforts may be able to be abstracted away from your own service, then offered to the world as a service that creates a new revenue stream. Either way, it’s clear that success in the Web 2.0 world is no longer just about building it all yourself; Sit down with the products of some of the more creative minds out there, and you never know where your own project might end up.