It's this realization that is leading many organizations toward a service-oriented architecture (SOA), an approach to architecting the IT infrastructure that eliminates redundancy and accelerates project delivery via consolidation and reuse of services (these services are often referred to as Web services).
SOA allows an organization to effectively leverage existing assets rather than forcing them to create yet another redundant silo for each business need. This, in turn, also makes IT more efficient, allowing for shorter cycle times and quicker project delivery – further helping IT align with the business.