Migration Strategies for SOAP-Based Enterprise Integrations to REST and Event-Driven APIs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63282/3050-9416.IJAIBDCMS-V7I2P127Keywords:
Enterprise Integration, SOAP To REST Migration, Event-Driven Architecture, Strangler Fig Pattern, API Modernization, Microservices, Data Consistency, Oauth 2.0, JSON Web TokensAbstract
For many organizations, modernizing their legacy enterprise architectures has become a strategic priority to enable cloud-native computing, mobile-first delivery, and real-time data processing. SOAP was the industry-standard for structured and reliable communication in SOA for years. It is a protocol that uses XML. Yet the complexity, bulkiness and tight coupling of SOAP based integrations has increasingly been a constraint in agile development. The paper examines the measures that need to be taken in order to migrate the legacy SOAP services to REST and Event Driven Architectures. Through a synthesis of contemporary research, this paper explores incremental models (e.g., Strangler Fig, Leave and Layer), technical issues such as the mapping of XML-centric actions to resource-oriented actions, and the evolution of security protocols from WS-Security to OAuth 2.0/JWT. In addition, a pivotal transformation emerges as the Infrastructure transcends synchronous ACID transactions towards an eventual consistency, event-driven model through the Transactional Outbox pattern and Change Data Capture (CDC). The results show that effective migration requires a holistic view of all technical re-architecture, organizational readiness, observability, etc., for business not to be interrupted and system to be long term in nature.
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