Open source has been proven particularly effective when implementing SOA. Using open source reduces the cost of tools while providing a range of options from different providers. Having access to the source code also eliminates concerns about vendor lock-in. Finally, open source offers a broad and supportive community and ecosystem to support the SOA initiative. At the same time, commercial open source SOA tools carry with them the full support of a well-established vendor.

This paper is divided into two sections. The first half of the paper describes the business challenges of three JBoss Enterprise Middleware customers and how they gained business benefit from the use of JBoss Enterprise products and services. The second half of the paper provides insight into the JBoss Enterprise SOA platform.

This white paper presents the following sections:

• The Business Need for SOA
  
• Understanding the Benefits of SOA
  
• Tangible SOA Business Payback
  
• JBoss Enterprise Middleware
  
• Open Source SOA Works