The catalog, to be released at first with 500 to 600 reusable resources, will accelerate SOA creation and solve specific business problems, said Sandy Carter, vice president of SOA and WebSphere Strategy and Marketing.

Carter said the catalog makes the business proposition of SOA services a reality.

"The major benefits are around reuse and flexibility of services that are interchangeable and loosely coupled," Carter said.

The catalog includes things, such as adapters, that will allow IT to connect its existing environment to Web services. One IBM customer used the adapter to wrap a Web service around legacy RPG code to create a service that fit into Amazon.com's shopping network.

Stephen O'Grady a senior analyst with Redmonk said while many organizations prefer to do it all themselves, for some companies the catalog is an attractive idea.