The research firm predicts that by 2009, more than 85 percent of development platforms will be enabled for SODA-style development.

SODA, which includes the patterns of composite applications, business process management (BPM) and rapid assembly of service-based solutions, is seen as, along with Web Services, essential to making the "agile" organization a reality.

Wiggins said without SODA, efforts to bring SOA into the mainstream market will fail.

"The benefit is that what used to be done by a few leading-edge developers will become a mass-market commonplace practice. The platform will support the coexistence and cooperation of services, Web services and the underlying components," Wiggins said.

"The success or failure of an SOA implementation will hinge on decisions made by application developers.