One of the keys to ensure that business needs are met by IT is a well-aligned service-oriented architecture (SOA). In simple terms SOA is an architectural style for building software applications that use services available in a network such as the Web. SOA also defines and provisions the IT infrastructure to allow different applications to exchange data and participate in business processes. These functions are loosely coupled with the operating systems and programming languages underlying the applications.
The first step in the evolution of enterprise software is SOA implementation. It enables an organisation to re-architect its software landscape to support changing strategies and thereby increases productivity. SOA’ s potential for business transformation is tremendous and the approach should be in a way that it does not demand huge investment of time and resources from the organisation. It’s not about replacing the organisation’s existing software infrastructure; it’s about leveraging it.
