What is SOA and why is it so important?

Nowadays, the race to stay relevant and up to date with today’s technologies is more competitive than ever, and companies keep on searching for software solutions that allow them do stay on top.

However, looking for a regular software solution that helps them achieve certain business goals isn’t enough anymore. Companies need to search for solutions that can adapt and grow overtime, and that’s when SOA comes into the picture.

SOA also known as Service Oriented Applications, has become a vital part of any company’s strategy that is actively looking for new ways to stay relevant and position themselves for better opportunities. It’s thanks to SOA that companies are able to:

1. Create moldable, shifting business models that can adapt to today’s market while also fulfilling their needs.

2. Have overall more dynamic business processes that are targeted towards smarter and more effective decisions

3. Have smarter IT platforms

Now, all of this sounds amazing, but how is this even possible? What even is SOA and why is it so important nowadays in the IT world? Well, sit down, and let us explain everything you need to know about it.

What is SOA?

SOA or Service Oriented Architecture, is that, a software architecture used for building business applications that are focused on service-based development and the final outcome of said services.

To really understand what SOA is and why is it so important nowadays, you must understand what a service is, after all, SOA focuses entirely on how these services perform.

A service can be defined as a representation of a business activity that repeats itself over time and has an specific desired outcome. It is important to mention that SOA pretty much acts as a black box to the consumers of said services.

Now, if you understand what a service is, it is much easier to comprehend that SOA is an architecture that builds business applications through black box components in order to deliver a great level of service.

In other words, SOA is related directly to the architecture of applications oriented to serve either a particular person or a global resource (like an enterprise, for example). It is the perfect combination between application architecture and enterprise architecture.

What is SOA used for?

We understand translating that definition to the real world might be confusing, specially if you are new to it, which is why it is so important to understand what SOA does and what it is used for.

1. SOA is a software architecture used for business applications only.

There are many different software architectures out there for developers to use depending on the solution they are creating and what is it or, however, SOA is an architecture used specifically for business applications. You see, SOA components link together through business processes in order to deliver an specific business service, which are, in a way, tied together to business process management.

2. SOA acts like a black box architecture:

This means that SOA, and the components of this architecture, aren’t seen or perceived by the user, but rather that it hides completely from them.

In other words, the users don’t know what SOA does, it just reassures them there are a numerous business applications that are constantly working to deliver a service.

To put it simply, SOA is necessary to make, build and deploy IT systems in a much easier way, targeted towards serving the goals of a business and integrating the business requirements with an IT framework that is able to leverage, extend and expand through time.

How does SOA work?

Although final users won’t be able to actually see this type of architecture, it is important to understand how SOA acts through loosely coupled components and how these are the bases of the whole architecture.

Basically, it means that two components pass data from one to another through a request, exchanging data in the process in order to deliver the specific service.

It is refereded as loosely coupled because that’s the way the components interact within SOA, meaning the components can communicate with each other but these interactions focus on being simple and maintaining the autonomy and authority of each part.

The key part of this interaction isn’t how components can “talk” with each other, but how SOA can be used to combine, mic and recombine different components along the way, allowing grow and re-structure to be done in a much more easy and flexible way.

Why you should implement SOA?

We are going to answer this question by separating it into two different points of view: From the technical point of view, and looking at it from an investment POV (Assuming you have a company and want to know how SOA can be benefit you)

From a technical point of view implementing SOA is great because:

1. It is autonomous amongst other applications

2. It increase the quality of the service providing a unified system

3. It’s based on standards

4. It supports any type of information requests

5. It makes the IT team job’s way easier

From an investment point of view:

1. It lowers down the integration costs

2. It lowers the time frame to grow vertically

3. It lowers the risk of changes of technologies oriented to final users

If you are thinking about getting a software solution for your business, you can always contact us! We will be more than happy to help you develop the software your business needs.

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