Which principle is emphasized in service-oriented architecture?

In service-oriented architecture (SOA), encapsulation of functionality is a core principle. This principle emphasizes that each service should be designed to perform a specific business function independently and expose its capabilities through well-defined interfaces. By encapsulating functionality, services can operate autonomously while ensuring that the internal workings are hidden from other services. This leads to improved modularity, allowing for easier maintenance, scalability, and flexibility in deployment.

Encapsulation also supports loose coupling, enabling services to interact with one another without needing to understand their internal logic or implementation details. This maximizes interoperability and facilitates integration across different systems and technologies while permitting the underlying implementation of a service to evolve independently.

In contrast, high coupling between services, centralization of data access, and the use of monolithic structures contradict the principles of SOA, which seek to promote modularity, decentralization, and flexibility in system architecture. High coupling would create dependencies that reduce the agility and scalability of applications, while centralization restricts the independent evolution of services and can create bottlenecks. Monolithic structures, likewise, do not support the ability to break applications into separate, self-contained services that can be developed, deployed, or scaled individually.