Beyond the Hype

• Loosely coupled systems can work together
• Dissimilar systems can interoperate
• Applications don't need SOAP awareness
• You can stop inventing proprietary protocols
• You can bypass firewall obstacles
  wait, is that good?

If you have separate systems written in separate languages, SOAP is a good bet. For closely related related systems written in the same implementation language, it's probably not the right choice.