Service-Oriented Architecture
From AMWA
There is no single, accepted definition of Service-Oriented Architecture, though many organizations have proffered a version of such a document. There is, however, widespread agreement over the limits of SOA (effectively defining what an SOA is NOT). SOA is an architecture, and not a technology. SOA specifies the interaction of services, not their implementation. Although some definitions have suggested otherwise, SOA is generally accepted as being a software architectural style, and unaffiliated with non-software architectures.
SOA envisions architectural components as services that present functionality through service interfaces (see Service and Service Interface). The technology that implements any given service should be abstracted from its interface and therefore independent from the structure of the architecture as a whole. SOA is focused on the guiding principles of:
- Reuse, granularity, modularity, composability, componentization, and interoperability
- Compliance to standards (both common and industry-specific)
- Services identification and categorization, provisioning and delivery, and monitoring and tracking
