Comparing SOA and Web services

Comparing SOA and Web services

You may have heard service oriented architecture SOA referred to synonymously with Web services. But it's important to realize that service oriented architecture SOA and Web services are not the same. Web services themselves deserve their own, more detailed discussion in a separate paper. In this current paper, let's take a moment to explore why service oriented architecture SOA is not the same thing as Web services.

Remember when the idea of object orientated programming became popular? During that time, C++ was an emerging programming language that happened to have strong support for object-oriented programming. But it would be inaccurate to say that a program written in C++ was object oriented: object orientation is an architectural approach, and C++ happens to be one language by which you could realize this architecture. The same principle holds true for service oriented architecture SOA and Web services. SOA service oriented architecture is the philosophy or approach used in designing the solution. Using Web services is simply a way in which you could realize this architecture. So let's keep in mind that using Web services isn't the only way to build out an SOA service oriented architecture. So, just as it is possible to use C++ as a language and not have an object oriented program, it is also possible to use Web services and not have an SOA.