Editing Service-oriented architecture (section)

== Defining concepts ==
The related buzzword [[service-orientation]] promotes ''[[loose coupling]]'' between services. SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services,<ref name="Bell">{{cite book|title=Service-Oriented Modeling: Service Analysis, Design, and Architecture|url=https://archive.org/details/serviceorientedm00bell|url-access=limited|publisher=Wiley & Sons|year=2008|isbn=978-0-470-14111-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/serviceorientedm00bell/page/n23 3]|chapter=Introduction to Service-Oriented Modeling|author=Michael Bell}}</ref> which developers make accessible over a network in order to allow users to combine and reuse them in the production of applications. These services and their corresponding consumers communicate with each other by passing data in a well-defined, shared format, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services.<ref name="Bell_">{{ cite book |author=Michael Bell|title=SOA Modeling Patterns for Service-Oriented Discovery and Analysis |url=https://archive.org/details/soamodelingpatte00bell|url-access=limited|year=2010 |publisher=Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-48197-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/soamodelingpatte00bell/page/n413 390] }}</ref>

SOA can be seen as part of the continuum which ranges from the older concept of [[distributed computing]]<ref name="Bell" /><ref name="Erl">Thomas Erl (June 2005). ''About the Principles''. Serviceorientation.org</ref> and [[modular programming]], through SOA, and on to practices of [[Mashup (web application hybrid)|mashup]]s, [[SaaS]], and [[cloud computing]] (which some see as the offspring of SOA).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://apsblog.burtongroup.com/2009/01/soa-is-dead-long-live-services.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115205704/http://apsblog.burtongroup.com/2009/01/soa-is-dead-long-live-services.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 15, 2009 |title=Application Platform Strategies Blog: SOA is Dead; Long Live Services |publisher=Apsblog.burtongroup.com |date=January 5, 2009 |access-date=August 13, 2012}}</ref>