As companies adapt to the realities of globalization, they face unprecedented commoditization and competition. To remain competitive, organizations must adapt more rapidly than ever before--which means that they must align their IT environments with their business goals and deliver information on demand, when and where it is needed.

Companies are increasingly meeting this need for information on demand with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), a business-centric approach to IT architecture that supports integration through linked, repeatable business tasks or services. SOA helps users build composite applications, which draw upon functionality from multiple sources within and beyond the enterprise to support horizontal business processes. Rapid reuse of existing assets and sharing of services and infrastructure across lines of business can be key factors in creating business processes that can adjust to changing market conditions.

XML has emerged as an important driver for SOA-enabled business agility and growth because it is not tied to any specific platform, language or system.