Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is rapidly becoming the new standard for today s enterprise. SOA can enable great agility, productivity and cost savings, but not if it is implemented with complex, closed and expensive enterprise platforms. The best way is to implement it in Simpler, Open and Affordable manner. The main purpose of this thesis is to identify some of the core characteristics of SOA and explain how they are manifested in actual technologies that can be used in a cost effective way in an enterprise.