The document compares REST and SOAP architectures for distributed computing. It defines REST as a web services style based on HTTP that designs operations on data, while SOAP is a protocol for exchanging structured information that offers application logic as a service. The document then outlines key differences, with REST being more lightweight, flexible and oriented towards data, while SOAP focuses more on operations, security and reliability. It concludes by recommending REST unless specific needs require SOAP.

1. EEDC
34330
Execution
Environments for REST
Distributed
vs
Computing
Master in Computer Architecture,
SOAP
Networks and Systems - CANS
Homework number: 2
Roger Rafanell rogerrafanell@gmail.com

2. Content
Distributed Systems
– Part 1: Definitions
– Part 2: REST
– Part 3: SOAP
– Part 4: Conclusions
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3. Part 1 - Definitions
Representational State Transfer (REST)
“Is a web service architectural style
based on the existing HTTP protocol
and markup languages, designed for
operations on data.”
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4. Part 1 - Definitions
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
“Is a web service protocol specification
for exchanging structured information
designed to offer application logic
as a service.”
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5. Part 2 - REST Overview
 Data oriented
– Expose a API over the internet to handle CRUD operations on DATA.
 Simplicity
– Based on HTTP and URIs standards.
– Creating clients (consume).
 Flexibility
– Allows many data formats such JSON (better browser support).
– JSON fits better for parsing data.
 Lightweight
– Requests can be short and can take 10 times less than SOAP ones.
 Performance
– Better performance and scalability.
– Reads can be cached on client browsers, not like SOAP.
 Complex to build
– More complex to develop services than SOAP.
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6. Part 3 - SOAP Overview
 Logic oriented
– Expose OPERATIONS over the internet as a service.
 Simplicity
– More easy to develop services than REST (toolkits).
 Security
– SOAP supports SSL (just like REST) it also supports WS-Security
adding some enterprise security features.
 Reliability
– SOAP, not like REST, has successful/retry logic built in and provides
end-to-end reliability.
 Atomicity
– SOAP offers ACID transactions over a service while REST it
isn’t ACID compliant.
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7. Part 3 – Adoption on business
 SOAP usual adoption on business:
Security/transactional-dependent business.
– Banks
– Paypal,…
 REST usual adoption on business:
– Yahoo (Flickr, del.ici.ous,…)
– Twitter
– Google (since 2006)
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8. Part 4 - Conclusions
Unless you have a special reason to use SOAP use
REST but, choose according your services needs!
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9. Q&A
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10. Fields of application
Thank You!
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