Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software design approach where services are the primary units of functionality. A service is a modular, self-contained unit that performs specific business tasks and communicates with other services via standard interfaces and protocols such as REST, HTTP, or SOAP.
The core idea of service orientation is to promote loose coupling, reusability, scalability, and platform independence. Each service hides its internal logic (encapsulation), operates autonomously, and is reusable across different applications. This results in improved agility and efficiency within business and IT systems.
SOA systems are built on several key principles: standardized service contracts, loose coupling, service autonomy, statelessness, reusability, discoverability, and composability. These principles help in creating flexible and manageable systems.
Service orientation significantly impacts enterprises by enabling better integration of business functions, enhanced scalability, and reduced costs. Applications are built as compositions of services, promoting reuse and simplifying system upgrades. Integration becomes seamless through API-driven communication, service orchestration, and event-driven models.
The four pillars of service orientation are teamwork, education, discipline, and balanced scope. These pillars support successful SOA adoption by ensuring collaboration, knowledge sharing, consistent practices, and well-defined objectives.
Overall, Unit 1 provides foundational knowledge about SOA, its design principles, benefits, and enterprise applications. It sets the stage for understanding how service-oriented systems can modernize and streamline software development and deployment.
