What is soa?

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled services. These services communicate with each other, often using a standard communication protocol over a network. SOA promotes reusability, flexibility, and scalability.

Key concepts within SOA include:

Benefits of SOA:

  • Improved reusability
  • Increased flexibility
  • Enhanced scalability
  • Reduced development costs
  • Better integration with legacy systems

Challenges of SOA:

  • Complexity
  • Governance
  • Security
  • Performance

Alternatives and related concepts:

  • Microservices Architecture (MSA) - a more granular and decentralized approach to SOA.
  • Representational State Transfer (REST) - an architectural style often used in conjunction with SOA, particularly for web services.