Editing Service-oriented architecture (section)

== Overview ==
In SOA, services use protocols that describe how they [[Message passing|pass]] and parse messages using description [[metadata]]. This metadata describes both the functional characteristics of the service and quality-of-service characteristics. Service-oriented architecture aims to allow users to combine large chunks of functionality to form applications which are built purely from existing services and combining them in an ad hoc manner. A service presents a simple interface to the requester that abstracts away the underlying complexity acting as a black box. Further users can also access these independent services without any knowledge of their internal implementation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-migratesoa/ |title=Migrating to a service-oriented architecture, Part 1 |date=2008-12-09 |access-date=2016-09-21 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209120916/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-migratesoa/ |archive-date=December 9, 2008 }}</ref>