My vote at a minimum that we standardize on SOAP due to the following items below.  SOAP is a standard, REST is not.  SMT Portal is based on SOAP functions as a base standard because we are doing more than transporting data which is primarily what REST is being designed for.  I believe there is a possibility that both will be used in the future, but security or lack thereof in REST is a problem at the moment.   I believe the group needs to recognize that the SMT Portal is not only data movement but B2B operations.  

 

SOAP is sometimes criticized because of the barrage of web service and XML standards (some would say, encumbrances) that ride along with it - XSD, WSDL, WS-Addressing, WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Federation, WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-RemotePortlets, etc. You can develop highly complex, object-oriented, distributed applications with SOAP.

But for many applications, you don't need all the complexity of SOAP. REST stands for REpresentative State Transfer. It is simpler and has more humble capabilities. In particular though, it lacks standards around security. One might use it for very light-weight applications where security isn't a consideration or can be addressed outside the communications protocol.

You would not use REST for B2B applications, but might use it for selected internal applications.