- Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software architecture based on loosely coupled services that support flexible and dynamically reconfigurable business processes. - Core components of SOA include services, a service registry, and a service bus. Services represent discrete business functions and expose interfaces using standards like Web Services. - Web Services are a common technology implementation of SOA using XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI standards to enable interaction and discovery of services across heterogeneous systems.