Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural pattern in software design where services are provided to other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network. The basic principles of SOA are to allow easy cooperation of a large number of computers that are connected over a network.

In SOA, a service is a well-defined, self-contained function that remains consistent and independent from the context or state of other services. Services in SOA are loosely coupled. This means that they interact with each other through simple, universal interfaces without needing to know a lot about each other.

SOA facilitates different services to communicate with each other and share data and processes, regardless of the underlying technology or the programming language they are written in. This interoperability is often achieved through the use of web services. Services in SOA are designed to be reused, which reduces redundancy and allows for the efficient use of existing services to create new applications.

Communication among services typically occurs over standard protocols, such as [[HTTP Protocol|HTTP]]/[[HTTPS Protocol|HTTPS]], allowing services to be accessible over the web. SOA enables the building of scalable and flexible software systems. Services can be added or modified independently without impacting other parts of the system.

SOA aims to align business processes and goals with IT infrastructure, enabling more adaptive and agile business practices. SOA does not depend on any specific technology, which allows for integration of various technologies within a single architecture.

Web services using [[SOAP]] (Simple Object Access Protocol) and [[REST APIs|REST]] (Representational State Transfer) are common implementations of SOA principles. In many SOA implementations, an [[Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)]] is used to facilitate communication and integration between different services.