Service-oriented architecture is taking hold in the government as a model for the information technology networks of the future, and vendors and contractors are positioning themselves to take advantage of it.

Broadly speaking, SOA is the use of open standards to link applications from many vendors, leading to an enterprisewide IT structure that avoids the isolated silos that have plagued large organizations for decades. The open standards allow customers to pay less attention to whom they’re buying hardware from and instead emphasize performance and cost.

The concept is exciting and promising, but market analysts say its openness can make it a tough sell because it takes away the advantage of proprietary software for vendors trying to confine customers to a single brand.