Popular assumptions can often be dangerous. We will start by considering how the many unique architectural characteristics of SOA, such as loose-coupling, can actually be a two-edged sword affecting the requirements, nature and success of many important aspects of the architecture, especially runtime governance. In fact, the success of any SOA requires that one must gain an understanding of the true nature, performance characteristics and availability of the business transactions that flows in real-time through these highly distributed services and their supporting IT infrastructure. Similarly, security and governance usually play a critical role in the proper operation of a SOA. Although one may support these critical SOA functions using many different technologies and standards, there is no doubt that for most users today the popular WS-* standards will play a central role. We will conclude by considering how all of these standards might best work together to solve these real-world problems in your SOA. In the process, we will speculate upon some the strengths and weaknesses in the current Web services stack, the nature of the standards process and what trends might be most relevant to your own future success.