Characteristics of SOA include a standards-based environment, loosely coupled connections to ease change, shared services, and federated control.
SOA evolved as a solution for complex and inflexible application infrastructures; by managing standards, protocols, information delivery, and application integration, IT organisations found that they could save money and increase flexibility through reducing architecture complexity and duplication.
The flexibility provided by SOA enables the continuous optimisation of business processes. But the traditional IT organisation, oriented toward discrete business units and supported by vertically integrated applications, constrains this optimisation. To be effective, the IT organisation must develop an orientation around end-to-end business processes.
