More and more organizations are looking to service-oriented architecture (SOA) as the basis of their future computer architecture. Recognizing that legacy application design and implementation approaches have led to applications that are costly to operate and maintain, hard to change, and rely on a dwindling set of skills, organizations are hoping that SOA provides a key component of the answer to these problems.

At the same time organizations are asking three important questions:

• Since I hear different things, what exactly is SOA, anyway?
  
• If I use it, how is it going to help my organization eliminate cost, increase agility, deal with dwindling legacy skill sets, and address compliance?
  
• Given that it has value, how do I get there?

This white paper, part of the Oracle IT Modernization Series, addresses all three of these questions.