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 TEST CENTER Solving the Web services puzzle By James R. Borck September 14, 2001 DESPITE INCOMPLETE standards and an uncertain road map to implementation, there is unfaltering optimism about the impact of Web services. But much confusion surrounds the very concept of the term Web services and how the technology will deliver the immense business benefits that many industry leaders have promised.
Web services make integrating applications easier than other means of distributed computing such as DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model), RMI (Remote Method Invocation), and CORBA, which require compatible architectures from all participants to succeed. Consequently, Web services allow businesses to extend existing systems to those of trading partners and customers without having to rearchitect existing back-end infrastructure. Web services carry the additional advantage of being universally accessible through Web-based directories that allow providers of Web services and potential customers to locate one another. Web services can take on many forms, from simple content-provider implementations such as stock quotes or credit card validations to more complex processes such as supply-chain interactions. Even companies with a modest set of trading-partner requirements will find that Web services will simplify in-house middleware issues. Similar to the way the Web browser brought businesses closer to their customers, Web services will help simplify b-to-b transactions, driving down costs and smoothing the way to collaborative relationships. A number of fundamental hurdles remain before Web services will fulfill its ultimate potential. For example, questions about end-to-end security, contractual agreements over service use, and QoS (quality of service) reliability are unanswered. How are these uncertainties affecting the pace of Web services adoption? To find out, we conducted our 2001 InfoWorld Web Services Survey. During July InfoWorld surveyed 500 readers involved in determining technology strategy and making technology-buying decisions for their companies, asking them about their expectations for Web services and plans for implementing them. (The resulting data has a sample tolerance variance of plus or minus 4.5 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.) Significantly, 85.4 percent of the respondents are familiar with Web services, and 73.8 percent of respondents rank Web services as a moderate, high, or critical IT priority for the next two years. Also, 65.8 percent indicate they would be developing Web services strategies within the next year. Our survey also found that 30 percent of respondents are already realizing benefits from Web services within their company or expect to within the next quarter. So despite the murkiness surrounding Web services standards, Web services are gaining momentum. And now is the time to chart your company's course. Back to basics Despite a smorgasbord of emerging standards, it is becoming easier to come to grips with the fundamentals for a service-oriented architecture because those standards are maturing. At their most basic, Web services can be thought of as pay-per-view application consumption. Need a stock ticker? Thumb through the directory of available stock tickers, find one that fits the bill, dial up its interface, and plug the stock ticker service into your Web page or application. As the above example suggests, Web services can be registered in a centralized repository where potential users can look them up. The directory information includes descriptions of the provider company, the services it offers, and links for interfacing with each service. Companies interested in selling their services create an explanation of those services, describe their interfaces (such as XML-based API), and publish the data to one of these public databases or registries of Web services. Finally, Web services are typically made available by use of a common transport mechanism, namely SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), through which agreements and binding can be universally facilitated. The directory, or repository, is accomplished through UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration). The interface is described in WSDL (Web Services Description Language), and the transport is managed seamlessly using SOAP, allowing companies to communicate with the outside application regardless of what platform, system, or standards are being used behind the scenes at either company. Filling the gaps Web services have taken some flak for ignoring many of the inherent complexities of enterprise-level b-to-b transactions, including security issues, trade-level agreements, and interactions among multiple partners. Nevertheless, the simplicity of Web services has been the key to garnering the industry support necessary to make the framework an eventual success. Much work remains ahead for Web services, but new standards are emerging to ease many of the current complexities. IBM has proposed WSFL (Web Service Flow Language), a standard for building complex Web service interactions that meet specific goals. In addition, the e-business XML specification builds on Web services to extend capabilities for security and more complex partnership agreements than other standards allow. It is still too early in the game to call a clear winner among vendors, but Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun all have made significant strides in the Web services market by working to develop standards for interoperability and building support for Web services into their offerings. IT executives should keep a close eye on these leaders as Web services standards continue to solidify. During the next year, as standards groups continue ironing out the fine points of Web services to enable a clear path toward issue-free adoption, businesses should begin including service-oriented constructs in their new development work. Toolkits are quickly maturing, too, with automated wizards for building WSDL interfaces and creating application-specific implementation code. Additional methods of simplifying service-based integration are also cropping up at a steady pace, such as Java-based portlets that package reusable components for easy deployment. In situations where security and complex interactions between services are not urgent requirements, businesses can begin using Web services today -- provided they can find a service provider to meet their needs. At the very least, businesses can begin experimenting with in-house Web services and private repositories to address interoperability flash points within company walls. It isn't too soon to begin realizing Web services benefits. Whether used for in-house adoption or bridging boundaries beyond corporate walls, Web services promise a future of quick and cost-effective application integration ultimately beneficial to your company's bottom line.    Test Center Managing Analyst James R. Borck (james_borck@infoworld.com) covers e-business solutions for enterprise computing.
 RELATED ARTICLES  2001 InfoWorld Test Center Research Report: Web servicesSPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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