Service-oriented architecture continues to gain momentum as the new architectural model for both enterprise applications and packaged application infrastructures. With product suites supporting SOA development arriving daily and the barrage of SOA standards and information out there, enterprises are on SOA overload.
Whether you're developing custom software for your SOA initiative or purchasing a packaged application, wending your way through the ever-growing maze of Web Services standards is imperative to your success. There's a lot to learn. Some standards are necessary for building out a Web Services architecture--WSDL (Web Services Definition Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and WSS (Web Services Security)--but others, such as WS-Routing, aren't and have been superseded by one or more newer standards.
