Has the rise of cloud led to greater acceptance of the need for and adoption of applications built around service-oriented architectures? Or is SOA dead and gone in the rush to web services?

✹ A big misconception today is that SOA is an old story. SOA is, in fact, mainstream and mature. It’s foundational to today’s cloud solutions. Many South African companies have adopted SOA and are realising tangible business results and are better positioned to enhance their on-premise solutions with cloud technologies. SOA helps organisations create a strategic foundation for business process excellence, enterprise mobility and adoption of cloud-based services. Patrick Shields, CTO for Africa, Software AG✹ It’s become necessary for big businesses to expose their capabilities as device-friendly, managed RESTful APIs. These APIs enable the mobile channel, cloud connectivity and ultimately consumer connection. For businesses to remain agile in this environment, a greater focus on SOA practices is required.