---
title: "Why SCA has a lot to prove: J2EE all over"
date: 2005-12-08T20:32:04Z
modified: 2005-12-08T20:32:04Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/why-sca-has-a-lot-to-prove-j2ee-all-over/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 417
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2005-12-08T20:32:04Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

I was at IBM’s annual analyst conference last week and the excitement levels among staff about [Service Component Architecture](http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/specification/ws-sca/) was palpable.



Its such a weird industry – we get excited about the introduction of a new abstraction layer…



SCA is a specification designed to augment [Service Data Objects](http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-sdo/) (SDO). 



IBM claims it underpins [SOA as a programming model](http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3567401). Good luck with that. 



I wondered at the time if IBM was so jazzed because it thinks it sees SCA as a potential chink in SAP’s armour? Wishful chinking, perhaps? Is it really likely this consortium is going to get things done:  BEA, IBM, IONA, Oracle, SAP, Siebel Systems, and Sybase? Or are we just trying to [hide the turd](http://schneider.blogspot.com/2005_11_27_schneider_archive.html#113340682874326567)?



I am sure Oracle and SAP can’t wait to provide competitors with an end run around the data closely held in their business applications.



I am skeptical SCA will deliver the benefits claimed, any time soon. Today I see that the WD at MWD has written the piece I would have, but with better J2EE backgrounding. So rather than repeat another analyst I simply concur: [what he said](http://www.mwdadvisors.com/blog/2005/12/with-sca-reality-bites-j2ee-again-but.html).



Seems like [Dana is pretty negative](http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/?p=2213) too.



My own linguistic bugbear- is it a service or a component? A wave or a particle? For composite apps or component business models. Doh!



It is certainly worth noting (reporter alert!) that Jim Marino at BEA [says](http://aporiae.blogspot.com/) we will see an _open source runtime for SCA_. Bring it on. But then he also says the spec is far from complete.



So what else is new…