In the beginning, an SOA-based approach was used for projects in individual departments, usually for those with high returns, short-term rewards, and relatively low risk, with typically a high degree of new development. But as the value of the SOA concept has become more apparent and its tools have grown in both scope and robustness, organizations are applying them more broadly, to organizational-size problems and mission critical issues, leveraging more and more existing code and production systems.

This white paper, sponsored by IBM, examines the issue of what is required for the successful use of SOA in mission critical applications, and includes three examples to illustrate how this might work.