Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a flexible set of design principles used during the phases of systems development and integration in computing. A system based on a SOA will package functionality as a suite of interoperable services that can be used within multiple, separate systems from several business domains.

• SOA solutions deliver business benefits which are cost-effective and
• adaptable to changing requirements, standards and technologies.

Web services can implement a service-oriented architecture. Web services make functional building-blocks accessible over standard Internet protocols independent of platforms and programming languages. These services can represent either new applications or just wrappers around existing legacy systems to make them network-enabled.

An application programming interface (API) is a particular set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate with each other. It serves as an interface between different software programs and facilitates their interaction, similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.

Industry Standards for interfacing and encoding information such as REST and XML reduce the cost, time and complexity required for the building block approach of service oriented solutions.