August 10, 2004

Update: WS-Addressing specification submitted to W3C

Potential standard helps exchange data between applications

BEA Systems Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., SAP AG and Sun Microsystems Inc. have submitted the WS-Addressing Web services specification to the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) for consideration as a standard, the companies said Tuesday.

WS-Addressing, or Web Services Addressing, is a key specification for software services on the Internet. It defines endpoint references and message information headers to allow systems to support the transmission of Web-service messages. WS-Addressing is designed to underlie other specifications such as WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-Federation.

"This is a critical infrastructure piece, it is at the foundation of Web services," said Dave Mendlen, director of Web services technical marketing at Microsoft. "The other Web services build on top of this core Web services specification."

Along with other Web services specifications that Microsoft, IBM and other vendors are working on, WS-Addressing is meant to help deliver on the promise of Web services by facilitating the exchange of data between disparate types of software applications.

Sun and SAP are new in the list of WS-Addressing backers. Sun, along with Oracle Corp., Nokia Corp. and several other companies in April submitted a competing specification called WS-MessageDelivery to handle Web services addressing. After the peace agreement with Microsoft earlier this year, Sun now endorses WS-Addressing.

"At the end of the day our customers want one specification. It would be logical to back the one with the most market momentum," said Ed Julson, director of Web services marketing for Sun. "This is a fairly direct outcome of some of the discussions Sun and Microsoft have had to find ways to interoperate."

Sun plans to support WS-Addressing in products that are part of its Java Enterprise System, Julson said. During the W3C process, Sun and the other WS-MessageDelivery creators will offer comments on the WS-Addressing specification to come to a single addressing standard, he said.

SAP, for its part, intends to support WS-Addressing in a future version of its NetWeaver product, said Marc Goodner, a technology architect at SAP. "We see this specification as being important to help reduce complexity for our customers," he said.

Microsoft, IBM and BEA will also support WS-Addressing in their products, company representatives said.

"The whole goal is to ensure interoperability for our customers so that they can integrate key business processes that might be on different platforms," said Karla Norsworthy, director of Dynamic eBusiness Technologies at IBM.

The WS-Addressing creators call the submission of the specification to the W3C a milestone for their collaboration. Also, the companies say it is part of their efforts to provide a foundation for Web services based on standards. The WS-Addressing authors will not charge royalties in conjunction with the specification, they said.

More details on the WS-Addressing specification is at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnglobspec/html/ws-addressing.asp

Close

On Twitter now

Applications

Powered by Twitter

On Twitter now

White Paper

D2D Virtual Tape Library Replication Primer

This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.

Download now »

White Paper

An Alternative to Virtualization for Datacenter Cost Savings

Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.

Download now »

White Paper

Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network

The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.

Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation

Download now »

White Paper

Bringing the Edge to the Data Center

Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.

Download now »

Sign up to receive Applications Resource Alerts

Subscribe to the Applications Newsletter

Stay informed of the latest news and technologies around application, project and performance management.

White paper

Turn Your IT Department into a Lean Machine

Like any valuable resource, IT is a terrible thing to waste. But by applying the same lean techniques that have been used to streamline manufacturing processes, IT departments can reduce costs, improve performance and better manage resources.

Download now! »

Podcast

Economy Makes Automation a Must-Have Tech for 2009

Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA's Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, explains why difficult economic times drive the need for simplified management capabilities and advanced automation tools.

Listen now! »

White paper

What You Need to Know About Virtual Infrastructure Management - Now

According to a recent study CA conducted with 300 CIOs and top IT executives, 64 percent of respondents say they've already invested in virtualization, and the other 36 percent reported that they plan to invest in virtualization.

Download now! »

Webcast

Leveraging Virtualization and Process Automation

In this video learn about process automation in a virtualized world. How CA and VMware are enabling enterprise datacenter automation.

View now! »
©1994-2009 Infoworld, Inc.