Many companies are turning to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach to use their existing IT assets in new ways. Application functionality is made available as a service, available to all applications that use that particular capability. Business managers know that an SOA is a key technology in business integration, and can help increase agility, improve customer satisfaction, and increase responsiveness.

Sun offers a modular, open-source approach to SOA solutions, which provides significant benefits when compared to closed, proprietary platforms. Sun provides the combination of business integration expertise combined with the assurance of enterprise-class support to deliver a modular, open-source based SOA platform that is flexible, lowers risk, and reduces costs.

This paper provides a brief overview of the benefits of open source and the business drivers behind its market momentum. The paper also describes Sun's modular, open-source approach to an SOA.