Service Orientated Architecture and Web Services

Traditionally, computer systems have tended to be developed as stand-alone applications (or point applications), designed for a particular purpose, with only limited interfaces to other systems. These interfaces have often been generated as an afterthought for an already active application.

Although standards such as EDI have been in existence for some time, in reality these have only worked well in certain industries. As a result many interfaces have been designed as one-off, may only support basic functionality, can appear "clunky" and at times, have proven unreliable. They have also often been built in a way that ties them to one or both of the systems communicating, so that changes to one of the systems has also necessitated changes to the interface.

Perhaps due to the inherent difficulties of interfacing & integrating systems, many traditional systems are monolithic, with similar functionality being built into overlapping applications both within an organisation and also across different organisation boundaries.

The advent of Service Orientated Architecture has provided a modern and much more flexible environment within which to integrate computer systems.

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