In January’s Open Group conference in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to join some industry thought leaders in a rousing panel discussion on the state of service-oriented architecture, and why SOA didn’t seem to be catching hold across the land and dazzling the imaginations of executives - as many analysts and vendors so boldly predicted not so long ago.

The consensus was that SOA itself was viable and sustainable. However, businesses were failing to understand the advantages SOA could provide to their operations. At the same time, IT was too immersed in the bits and bytes of the technology, and not effectively selling the new approach.

One fellow panelist - David Linthicum - was also the conference keynoter. David, an analyst with ZapThink and former CTO of Grand Central Communications, a Web services provider, expressed the challenge of SOA these days in a tongue-in-cheek manner: “some companies simply don’t deserve SOA.”

David was only half joking, because as he explained during his keynote, many IT departments rushed to put SOA in place mainly for the purpose of putting SOA in place, and without regard to the business landscape it’s supposed to support. Of course, the business side is as much to blame, thinking they can shoehorn new ways of leveraging information assets into their archaic, over-controlling business processes.

He said that the root of the issue is the long-running “disconnect” between IT and business. Such disconnect is the stuff of a million articles and conference presentations, but yet, ultimately is hurting the business.

This has been a challenge that has been dogging IT for decades. In a recent interview, Ed Yourdon, noted IT iconoclast and author of legendary IT books such as Death March and Decline and Fall of the American Programmer, observed that there's always been organizational tension over “whether IT is building the kinds of systems the business needs, or whether they anticipate, and can work strategically, to help the business make the best possible use of IT. That problem has been around for 30 or 40 years.”

The problem is that there has been a constant push and pull within businesses over the decades over the role of IT. In one regard, IT is seen as a service provider, expected to provide the maximum output at the lowest possible costs. For other companies, IT is regarded as a partner in the business, taking a seat next to other executives to help guide new business initiatives. Still, at others, IT is the business.

Here are the three roles IT plays in organizations these days:

IT as service provider to the business. For decades, since the day the switch on the first mainframe was flipped, corporate financial types have tended to view IT as a cost center. In organizations that still have such a mentality, IT isn’t expected to know or even care about the course of the business - just provide such-and-such reports, keep the database up and running, and be there when someone crashes their PC, please. However, this is where the greatest IT-business alignment occurs. Such organizations are also the most likely to view IT as a commodity that can be outsourced or replaced by software-as-a-service offerings.

IT as not only part of the business, but the business itself. An interesting phenomenon began to take hold in the late 1990s, and that was information technology wasn’t just a service, but was the actual business itself. We saw the rise of dot-com companies, as well as exchanges that sought to disintermediate middlemen from tiered markets. The dot-coms and exchanges lost some of their luster when their stock values crashed, but the notion of IT-as-the-business holds a lot of credence in many circles. Think not only Amazon and Google, but also information-as-a-service operations such as Bloomberg or Edgar Online.

IT as a partner to the business. Their businesses may not be about technology, but in a growing number of organizations, IT gets a seat at the table with other executive movers and shakers. Such organizations understand that to get where they want to go, they need to operate smartly and efficiently, and having the right technology is the way to do that. As I recently heard from the CIO of a large insurance carrier, IT is expected to step up and play a leadership role at the company: “The business units have levied the responsibility upon IT to do much of the coordination and planning for new projects. They rely upon IT to help guide them as to what initiatives need to be done and when they need to be done throughout the year.”

Ultimately, organizations that embrace IT as a full partner in the business can help to guide the decisions of executives and boards in entering new markets or enriching current customer relationships. Jill Dyche, a thought leader in the business intelligence and analytics space, says IT needs to lead - all the way up to the boardroom suite: “Everyone underestimates the visionary capabilities of the IT organization. IT can provide lines of business, executives, board members, and shareholders with original ideas and fresh thinking - a possibility rarely acknowledged by those outside of IT, who don’t engage often enough.”

About the Author

Joe McKendrick edits 5 Minute Briefing: Data Center, serving the SHARE community. He can be reached at Joe@dbta.com.