Service

1. A service is an interface to an application through which a caller can accomplish one or more of the following:
   • provide data.
   • receive data.
   • issue commands.
2. Data provided to & received from services are typically encoded in accordance with open standards. This eliminates the need for continuity in the technologies used to implement a service & its caller. Provided that both parties can exchange data encoded in an open standard such as XML or JSON they can communicate.