SOA, WOA, Web 2.0 and Other Picture Post Cards
The success of service-oriented architecture will hinge on its roots in Web-oriented architecture.
Face it. Cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS) and other implementations of distributed services are here to stay, because the advantages are proved by a handful of successful implementations. Amazon and Google Web services are highly successful, and many AJAX-based applications knock our socks off because they leverage Web sevices correctly. It's probable that web-based productivity applications will see their day, but even if not, Web 2.0 and WOA have already demonstrated their prowess.
Finally, it could be argued that a de-facto standard foundation, simply due to its nature of being a de-facto standard, is every bit as important to SOA as the technological greatness of the standards. SOA will stand or fall depending on its usefulness, and its usefulness revolves around the ability for applications and services to interoperate seamlessly. It must therefore be relatively easy for an application to discover and communicate with a service. The closer a service conforms to a de-facto standard, the easier it will be to discover and use that service properly.
