Service-Oriented Architecture: Foundational Elements

by Amit K. Maitra

"Service-oriented architecture" (SOA) is a powerful term regularly abused by its constant reference to developmental technologies rather than its architectural approach. This Executive Report by Dr. Amit K. Maitra discusses SOA in the context of "services" as the term applies to architecture and to "architecture" as it applies to exposing the services. The new service concept is revolutionizing and accelerating the way enterprises accomplish business integration by providing a foundation for business agility with minimal cost and full potential for application reusability. This report first defines the foundational elements of SOA then argues that just as the Enterprise Service Bus connects applications to services in an SOA, a similar approach with the potential benefits of architecting a messaging foundation for the functionality of "information as a service" could and should be undertaken.