Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is having a noticeable impact when it is implemented, according to a new report from Aberdeen Group.

SOA refers to a design model or architecture that can help businesses integrate applications more efficiently and update them without extensive recoding. The services are essentially modular programs that carry out particular tasks, such as checking a customer’s credit history. They can be reused because they are commonly built using standard interfaces, such as XML.

The Aberdeen report SOA Middleware Takes the Lead: Picking Up Where Web Services Leaves Off, states that where IT organisations that made the investment in SOA infrastructure such as ESBs (Enterprise Service Bus), repositories, and registries, are significantly outperforming companies that develop only web services, resulting in lower application lifecycle costs, better throughput for projects, and higher levels of user satisfaction. Earlier this year, SOA was ready to move from the testing phase into production.