Service-oriented architecture can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to implement. But the technology experts who can cut through the technical jargon and intense market hype say SOA has the potential to play a major role in the future of systems development.
In short, SOA provides a framework for developing software components to manage data communications among different systems. Because those components are platform-independent, they make it possible to build services that work with multiple applications. Therefore, SOA has the potential to increase interoperability and save time and money in application development.
This new way of thinking is slow to take hold in the federal market. Similar ideas have emerged before with great fanfare, only to fade away with barely a whimper. But experts say SOA is different.
