Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Most architects now recognize that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is much more than Web services (WS) standards and better application integration. SOA continues to gain industry recognition as a key element of strategic business transformation — which is a much higher level of business impact than mere application integration. Strategic SOA-based business services increase both business and application flexibility, providing a modular, digital-world implementation of your business that is ready to connect to any customer, employee, supplier, or partner wherever and whenever. Web services add value to SOA by providing a standards-based ecosystem and open access via loose technology coupling. For architects to lead their organizations on a successful SOA journey, they must understand SOA's overarching concepts, its relationship to business design, and its impact on governance, technology platforms, solution delivery life cycles, and architecture management.