This level of funding is focused on service inventory architecture and infrastructure. The intent is to establish an environment capable of hosting and enabling the runtime utilization of a collection of related services. One of the key factors here is that services need to be repeatedly leveraged as part of new and reconfigured service compositions.

Generally, the emphasis is on infrastructure components, such as service registries, ESBs, and various forms of service management frameworks. The important distinction is that this funding is not for the actual definition or creation of services.

There are three common platform funding models:

• Project Funding Model – With this model, the funding of the platform is provided centrally.
• Central Funding Model – This model identifies appropriate projects to acquire or to extend new or existing SOA platforms.
• Usage Funding Model – The initial platform is funded centrally but usage fees are charged for ongoing maintenance and support.