WOA wins hands-down over SOA in popularity contest

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WOA is a substyle of SOA

WOA is SOA with the additional constraints of WWW and REST.

http://blog.gartner.com/blog/index.php?itemid=400&catid=31

From Nick Gall, the person that coined WOA:

[quote]
* Long version: WOA is an architectural style that is a substyle of SOA based on the architecture of the WWW with the following additional constraints: globally linked, decentralized, and uniform intermediary processing of application state via self-describing messages.

* Shorthand version: WOA = SOA + WWW + REST

BTW, Since WOA is a substyle of SOA (ie it imposes additional constraints above and beyond those imposed by SOA), you may be interested in our definition of SOA:

Service-Oriented Architecture:
* Long version: An architectural style in which certain discrete functions are packaged into modular, shareable, distributable elements ("services"), which can be invoked by consumers in a loosely coupled manner.

* Shorthand version: SOA = modular + distributable + sharable + loosely coupled
[/quote]

IMO, it is the addition of the WWW and REST constraints that make WOA easier to grok than SOA.

The complaints about SOA seem to be driven by fundamental misunderstandings or faulty assumptions.

SOA is not a technology. It is an architectural style.

SOA is not SOAP. A technical realization of an SO architecture might use SOAP for consumer/provider interaction, but this is not requisite to being SO.

SOA is not WS-*.

SOA does not require the use of SOAP.

SOA is not SOAP.

SOA does not require the use of XML.

SOA is not SOAP.

SOA does not require an ESB, registry, and XML applicance, or any other tool.

SOA is not SOAP.

SOA is typically applied at the enterprise level but that is not requisite. It can just as easily be applied at lower levels of abstraction.

SOA is a notion created/coined by Gartner (as is WOA) and is pretty basic: the notion of service provider and consumer, the service interface standing separately from the service implementation. That's it. These are the core principles of SO.

Some vendors and some analysts have confused the space by overloading the SOA term and equating it with specific technologies. To belabor the point, SOA is not a technology and does not require any specific technology.

By definition, WOA is a form of SOA.

Oh, did I mention SOA is not SOAP?

Posted by: reamon@...   Posted on: 08/25/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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