Metcalfe’s Law states that, “the usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the number of user." This law has been modified over the years to take into account the number and value of the resources on the network (i.e. available services).

The Network Effect is the result of Metcalfe’s Law, it states that, “the adoption rate of the network increases in proportion to the its utility.”

Since most service-oriented architectures leverage network and application protocols, in many ways the SOE falls victim to the both Metcalfe’s Law and the Network Effect.