This is an old blog post by Frans Bouma, but I think it is still true

If you are lucky, you do not know about SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). In some quarters, this is the buzzword de jour. In my work in earlier 2006, I was involved in two projects that were trying to look credible as SOA's, since the term was so hot among marketeers. My impression is that the thud of it going nowhere is loud, but InfoWorld is still hyping SOA. This old blog post (from 2005, ancient history) by Frans Bouma still seems relevant: "This SOA hype is getting out of hand". To a large degree, this is a "green eyeshade" topic, so you are welcome to go back to sleep. When "web services" didn't totally conquer the world, the marketeers went to work to figure out a better buzzword, so it would. SOA was the result and the rest was history. By the way, Frans's explanation of the SOA in Dutch means "sexually transmitted diseases" (Seksueel Overdraagbare Aandoeningen).