At the core, SOA is about creating systems out of standard building blocks. Many of the principles underlying SOA, such as isolating finctionality to promote reusability, are long-standing best practices. In the past, however, adoption of SOA was hindered by a lack of widely accepted standards for putting together these buuidling blocks. Now the pressing demands of business - which necessitate increased system flexibility and adabtibility - have inspired nearly all organizations to align on a single set of standards for SOA: Web services.
