The SOA Magazine. SOA in Healthcare Conference. 10 Must-Know Topics For Software Architects In 2009. In the last year or so, after quite a lull, the software architecture business has gotten rather exciting again. We're finally seeing major new topics emerging into the early mainstream that are potential game-changers, while at the same time a few innovations that have been hovering in the margins of the industry are starting to break out in a big way. The big changes: The hegemony of traditional 3 and 4-tier application models , heavyweight run-time platforms, and classical service-oriented architecture that has dominated for about a decade is now literally being torn asunder by a raft of new approaches for designing and architecting applications. SOA. What’s Next for SOA?