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Guest View: Three Definitions of SOA


By Jan Popkin
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August 1, 2007 —  (Page 1 of 3)
Service-oriented architecture has emerged as one of the most discussed topics in software development today. Attend an IT conference and SOA is often one of the featured topics. Magazine articles tout “how to” case studies of SOA implementations and in-depth analyses of the technology and its benefits. Newspapers cover every SOA from every angle.

SOA has become a rich, complex term that encompasses much more than a new technology. As with the advent of any new technology, the term SOA has been expanded to assume a variety of meanings. The most common usage refers to SOA as a technology that loosely couples applications into a service layer. Others talk about SOA as the next big thing on the technology horizon. SOA can also refer to a concept that embraces a service-based, flexible technology platform that increases agility.

What exactly is meant by the term SOA?

The usage of the term SOA can be tied to three definitions, and when different people are using different definitions, confusion can be the result:

1. SOA as a technology. This usage is the most common today and discusses the actual “how to” software behind developing and linking services to create an agile IT infrastructure. This meaning is reflected in the definition of the OASIS Reference Model for SOA 1.0: “a paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains.”

2. SOA as an architectural principle. This usage is directly tied to SOA’s adoption as a planning tool that designates what services will be designed and how they relate to one another over time. The SOA concept is viewed as part of the goal of using IT to address current and future organizational strategies via reconfiguration. This approach defines a new way for technology to enable architecture. OMG reflects this in its definition of SOA as “an architectural style for a community of providers and consumers of services to achieve mutual value.”




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