Web Services

The World Wide Web is more and more used for application to application communication. The programmatic interfaces made available are referred to as Web Services. The goal of the Web Services is to develop a set of technologies in order to lead Web Services to their full potential. Web Services are a group of closely related, emerging technologies that describe a service-oriented, component-based application architecture that is based on an open, Internet-centric infrastructure. 

Actually, Web Services represent a model in which discrete tasks within e-business processes are distributed widely throughout a value net. And, Web Services components can be recombined by other companies to meet the needs of their own software applications or business processes.

One simple example of Web Services may be an auction engine like eBay's. The eBay web site offers a highly successful auction service. Today, however, if Widgets-R-Us, a business that sells surplus widgets, wants to add auction functionality to its own business model, it needs to develop its own auction software from scratch or redirect customers to a site like eBay. 

With Web Services, eBay could syndicate its auction functionality and make it available to other web sites or applications (presumably for a fee). Companies like Widgets-R-Us would simply subscribe to eBay's Web Services add a few lines of code to their own applications to incorporate the web service, and they instantly have private-labeled auction functionality available on their own sites. 

Other example includes stock quotes, content syndication, mapping services, and so on. Some more enterprise-centric services may include payroll management, shipping and logistics, business intelligence, credit scoring, etc.

Web Services are not a specific technology, but rather a group of established and emerging communication protocols that include HTTP, XML, Simple Object Application Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). A web service can be developed on any computer platform and in any development environment, as long as it can communicate with other web services using these common protocols.

Web Services draw extensively from previous models of component-based computing, including CORBA and others. The key differences are that web services are (1) loosely specified and coupled and (2) built on top of existing, ubiquitous infrastructure like HTTP and XML. Web Services seem poised for success; because the technology's backers have, so far, focused on incremental technology changes and the mantra of "keep it simple."

The technology marketing industry has mastered the hype lifecycle, but rarely we have seen a concept emerge from obscurity to new thing as quickly as "Web Services." While we fundamentally believe that the concept, promise, and implementation of Web Services are sound, these virtues run the risk of getting lost in a rush of marketing showmanship. Part of the problem is that the Web Services label is incredibly generic; while perhaps more accessible than techno-jargon like UDDI, WSDL, and all the other acronyms that collectively define the concept, such a generic term easily can be misapplied in ways that dilute its meaning.

Security is important for any kind of distributed computing environment. For Web Services environments, security is becoming even more important due to Web services' unique characteristics. The most common security scheme available for today's Web Services is SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which is typically used with HTTP. Despite its popularity, SSL has some limitations when it comes to Web Services. Thus, various XML-based security initiatives are in the works to address Web Services' unique needs.