Implementing SOA requires governance in order to ensure that the organization applies and enforces the policies that apply to the Services that the organization creates as part of its SOA initiative. But more importantly, organizations can leverage SOA best practices to represent policies broadly in such a way that the organization can achieve better policy management, flexibility, and visibility into policy compliance across the enterprise. Because of these two characteristics, enforcing policies and leveraging SOA best practices, it is critical for all organizations to deploy SOA governance as soon as they begin their SOA initiative.

With its acquisition of Mercury and its Systinet division, HP has propelled itself into a leadership position in the SOA governance space. HP is well-positioned to help its customers leverage SOA for IT governance, and more broadly, for corporate governance.