Every now and than people approach me and tell me that they’ve read and heard so many things about SOA and are wondering “Now what is it, really ?”.

It seems like there are still too many variations in terms of what SOA is and what it means to people and that we still struggle to describe it to a broader audience.

To me, SOA is all about the convergence of Mindset, Methodologies and Technologies.

• Mindset because SOA is all about thinking in services and not in technology
• Methodology because it is a pattern and style on how to structure systems, applications and processes supported through architecture and implemented by people
• Technology obviously supports and ultimately allows us to implement the latter two in an integrated fashion

But the true difference is about the convergence of these three that makes the up SOA !