Updated June 30, 2023
Introduction to SOA
SOA is a style of software design. In the concept of SOA, application components provide services externally to other components through a communication protocol over a network. The basic principle of SOA does not depend upon technologies, products, and vendors. Wikipedia’s definition of SOA describes it as a software design style in which application components provide services to other components through a communication protocol over a network.
The basic principle of service-oriented architecture is independent of vendors, products, and technologies. A service is a discrete unit of functionality that can be accessed remotely, acted upon, and updated independently, such as retrieving a credit card statement online.” It is interesting to know that SOA was initially known as Service-Based Architecture.
There are four basic properties if we go through one of the definitions:
- It is self-contained.
- A service in SOA may depend on other SOA services.
- Consumers do not have any knowledge of what’s happening in the process.
- It is typically wrapped to represent a business activity.
Understanding
Web services promote an associate degree atmosphere for loosely coupled and practical systems. Many of the ideas for net services come back from an abstract design referred to as service-oriented design (SOA). SOA configures entities (services, registries, contracts, and proxies) to maximize loose coupling and recycling. This material describes these entities’ abstractly associated degree in their configuration.
Although you may most likely use net services to implement your service-oriented design, this chapter explains SOA without much reference to selected implementation technology. In later chapters, we will demonstrate how to accomplish this, allowing you to observe the domains in which net services excel in delivering key aspects of a genuine SOA, while also identifying areas where Web services may have limitations. Although the net services area unit is an honest beginning toward service-oriented design, this chapter can discuss what a totally enforced SOA entails.
What can you do with SOA?
Several things can be done with SOA:
1. Making a Reliable Service
We can utilize it to create a dependable service.
It could be used to make a reliable service that contains the following features:
- Improved information flow.
- Ability to expose internal functionality.
- Organizational flexibility.
2. Making Reusable Service
One of the primary use of SOA is to make a reusable service. Therefore, SOA concepts could be easily used and implemented to make a service that is not limited to a single component but could be used in multiple components.
3. Configuration Flexibility
It offers high flexibility and allows easy configuration according to our needs.
4. For Developing new Function Combinations
You can use it to develop new function combinations as needed or required rapidly.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Given below are the advantages and disadvantages mentioned:
Advantages:
- Maintenance is Easy: Editing and updating any service implemented under SOA architecture is easy. You don’t need to update your system. A third party maintains the service, and any amendment in this service won’t have an effect on your system. In most cases, the previous API work because it is functioning before.
- Quality of Code Improved: As services run freelance of our system, they have their variety of code; therefore, our code is prevented from redundancy. Also, our code becomes error-free.
- Platform Independence: Services communicate with alternative applications through a common language, which implies it’s a freelance of the platform on which that application is running. Services can provide API in different languages, e.g., PHP, JavaScript, etc.
- Scalable: If any service obtains several users, it is often simply scalable by attaching additional servers. This will create a service out there all time to the users.
- Reliable: Services square measure typically smaller size than the full-fledged application. So it’s easier to correct and check the freelance services.
- Same Directory Structure: Services have an equivalent directory structure so that customers can access the service information from an equivalent directory on every occasion. The additional directory remains the same if any service has modified its location. This is very helpful for consumers.
- Independent of Other Services: We generate services using SOA principles independently from each other. Thus, multiple applications can use these services at the same time.
Disadvantages:
- High-Bandwidth Server: Therefore, the net service sends and receives messages and knowledge often, so it simply reaches high daily requests. So it involves a high-speed server with plenty of information measures to run an internet service.
- Extra Overload: In SOA, we validate all inputs for their validity before sending them to the service. If you victimize multiple services, it’ll overload your system with further computation.
- High Cost: It is expensive in terms of human resources, development, and technology.
Why Should We Use SOA?
This has multiple advantages, as we have discussed earlier in this article. We can use it to make reliable, better, injectable, and reusable services.
Why do we Need SOA?
It could be used for solving various business needs:
- For Developing Independent Services: We require it if our business needs to develop services that are independent of each other. However, these services can still communicate with each other.
- To Expose Data: Exposing the software’s functionality as a service is easier to implement if we use SOA.
- To Develop Reusable Service: SOA is perfect for this if we require a reusable service. You can use it to create independent, reliable, and reusable services.
How will this Technology Help in your Career Growth?
This is one of the most used technology. Almost every business logic has requirements that require some or the other way input from SOA. Hence it is not wrong to say that many different business requirements will demand SOA.
Conclusion
It is a multi-purpose concept for designing different injectable services. These services could act externally to other components as application components through a communication protocol over a network. The basic principle of SOA does not depend upon technologies, products, and vendors. However, it requires a lot of practice to use it most efficiently.
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