Q16Cloud Computing
Question
4 marks
What are Web Services? Differentiate between SOAP and REST.
Answer
Web services are standardized ways of integrating web-based applications. SOAP is protocol-based, while REST is an architectural style.
Web services allow different applications to communicate over the network. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a strict, XML-based protocol with built-in security and transaction compliance, often used in enterprise environments. REST (Representational State Transfer) is a more flexible architectural style that uses standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and can support multiple formats like JSON, XML, and plain text. REST is lightweight and widely used for public APIs and mobile apps.