Innovation Spotlight: IBM pursues carrier SOAs

What: Service-oriented architectures

Why you should care: SOA has been a business buzz-acronym for at least 10 years, and the telecom industry has been discussing it almost as long. Definitions vary, but implementing an SOA basically means introducing more flexible more efficient access to application resources, thus speeding up service creation and delivery to help telcos better compete in the broadband era. The most ambitious use of SOA would have even customers accessing carrier resources to craft their own services.

Who's using it: Who isn't? Most telecom carriers are exploring SOA implementations or SOA-inspired revamps to some degree. IBM just announced a new series of tools targeted at carrier SOA projects.

For more:
- read Telephony's report on IBM's offerings