Joe,

This seems to be a very limited view of SOA as just messaging middleware and nothing else.

Now while some vendors may want to sell that - because that is all they have in their implementation stack - I've always viewed SOA as containing the means to direct and manage message interactions - and whether you call that workflow, message flow or process flow - its definately all part of the BPM box IMHO.

And - critically - as soon as you apply collaboration profiles to the messaging arena - you have to have some kind of collaboration description - to make agreement to - and to have the software check compliance with - manage state of - direct requests and responses - this all requires knowledge of the BPM steps and definition.

The separation into layers as you describe is the diagram #18 from the PPT - but just because you have these layers does NOT mean that the BPM is not an intrinsic part of the SOA. The layer metaphor is just a convenience to aid understanding for humans.

Like explaining to your Grandma how the steering wheel directs the wheels of the car - but the steering wheel is inside the car in reality - not sticking out from the roof!!

So products like BEA, iWay, MQSeries et al all have the process control stuff deeply embedded into the menus and setup of the messaging not to mention the inner working of the messaging engine itself already.

DW.