Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and enterprise service bus (ESB) are two buzzwords that have gained significant momentum and traction in live architectures over the last few years. Speaking from firsthand experience, I would say SOA/ESB techniques do deliver increased modularity, flexibility and reusability of components, which has been the age-old promise of object-oriented programming (OOP) and even general software engineering. In particular, SOA/ESB appears to extend effectively on the hallowed OOP principle of encapsulation. But it seems all new paradigms come with a "dark side" that must be effectively recognized and managed to minimize undesirable consequences. What is the dark side of SOA/ESB? This article examines it and proposes a powerful technique and "quasi-architecture" as the solution.
