The main characteristics of service-oriented architecture include:
• Loose coupling of independent services, from either separate internal development or third-party license, used together in building a larger application.
• Interoperability such that services can be plugged into a variety of software systems and updated without affecting application performance.
• Scalability in that services can be ramped up and back down as needed without the knowledge of the application.
• Offloaded maintenance because software developers are not responsible for the upkeep of the services they use.