service oriented architecture (SOA) architectural pattern Edit

In the '80s and '90s most organizations used a single application, and a single server was used to automate their business processes. As more and more processes where automated more computers were added to automate the business. When more automation happened, the number of computers grew exponentially & new applications were introduced into the organization which was written in newer languages, now you also had to deal with legacy applications that were old but working fine. These applications had to talk to each other. In larger organizations, we also had to deal application across geographical boundaries which had to talk to each other. You also had applications were running on different platforms like Windows, Linux.

The service-oriented architecture is a software architectural pattern which was introduced to find a solution to the above problems. In SOA application components provide services to other components via a communications protocol, typically over a network, A service-oriented architecture is an approach to design enterprise applications by loosely coupling interoperable services. SOA uses loosely coupled services, standard interfaces, and protocols to deliver seamless cross-platform integration. In SOA every component of s system should be a service and a system should be composed of several loosely coupled services.

service-oriented architecture has nothing to do with any technology, tool, or a vendor. Its an approach or a way of building and maintaining software systems. In SOA, assets and components may not be controlled by a single owner, different teams, different companies may be the owner of a service. In SOA architecture the services need to be an autonomous and self-contained piece of software.