SOA Is Not SOAP

摘要

The rapid concurrent growth of web ser-vices/SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), compounded with the associated hype, has lead to confusion between these two key technologies. In this article, I examine some defining aspects of an SOA and the importance of accessibility of its services. I also look at how SOAP is one of many different middlewares that may be used to access services, and then present some examples of where SOAP and other middlewares are appropriately applied. SOAs have become popular recently, in many cases because of their strength as an integration and consolidation platform. In fact, such architectures are often called "SOIA," where "I" is for "Integration." SOA platforms have been adopted by companies that know all too well the costs of maintaining large, complex, heterogeneous enterprise systems with significant redundancy, often built up over time through acquisitions, and patched together.