Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has emerged as a promising harbinger of agility, but is certainly not without its critics. Although SOA is not a new concept, it's not a mainstream approach and has not yet demonstrated widespread, repeatable success. It's no surprise then that it's often met with passionate resistance. Given the lack of SOA case studies and the fact that it usually demands a dramatic departure from the norm, SOA is often sidelined to make way for the more traditional, generally accepted point-to-point (P2P) integration approach.

In the absence of objective SOA performance data, the industry needs a simple model that compares the distinguishing characteristics of SOA and the P2P approach on a fundamental level so that we can make more objective judgments about the fit of SOA in our enterprises. This article presents such a model and demystifies the short- and long-term financial effects of each, illustrating that although each is aimed squarely at the goal of enterprise integration, their effects on the bottom line are vastly different - in fact exactly opposite.