SOA for SMBs
Small and midsize businesses face quite different integration challenges than large enterprises. Internal integration needs are more straightforward than at larger firms, while business models are more likely to focus on business-to-business integration with suppliers and customers. Traditional approaches to B2B integration like EAI, however, are notoriously inflexible and expensive.
Many such firms are leveraging Web Services to reduce the cost of older approaches to address their external integration needs. The simple addition of Web Services interfaces, however, typically remain as inflexible as the API approaches that came before. Only through the application of Service-Oriented Architecture can midsize firms build and leverage loosely coupled Web Services that are flexible enough to respond to ongoing change in the business environment.