As you continue to develop your IT architecture, it becomes clear that the route to achieving real business benefits requires a fundamental change in the way you think about system design. In this article on services-oriented architecture (SOA), I'll share with you helpful tips, insights, and a domain model to help you plan this change, and ensure the success of your SOA implementation.

SOA: A New Way of Thinking
Albert Einstein once said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." In today's enterprise computing, this suggests that the challenges IT faces in delivering successfully to the business cannot be overcome without changing the way we think about IT. For developers and enterprise architects alike, SOA provides a structure for that change. The question then becomes: How do we migrate to that new level? How do we prepare for such a fundamental change? How do we do so in the most cost-effective, least organizationally traumatic way possible? The answers begin with proper planning.