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What
a Web Service Is - and Isn't
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The software industry has been a buzz the past year speculating
about the next monumental shift in architecture that promises to
dramatically improve infrastructure design, application development,
enterprise integration, and 'service' deployment over the web. Driven
by the demand for true collaboration between business partners and
faster deployment of web applications, this new software architecture
is intended to super-charge business interactions and increase efficiencies.
The technical definition of a Web Service, as described by Microsoft,
is programmable application logic accessible through standard Internet
protocols. Web Services combine the best aspects of component-based
development and the Web. Like components, Web Services represent
black-box functionality that can be reused without worrying about
how the service is implemented. Unlike current component technologies,
Web Services are not accessed via object-model-specific protocols
but through ubiquitous Web protocols and data formats, such as Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML). A
Web Service can be implemented on any platform in any programming
language, as long as the application can create and consume the
messages defined for the Web Service interface.
Web Services promise to provide unprecedented application interoperability
and cross-leverage by allowing them to participate more broadly
as integrated components of complete e-business solutions. By exposing
components of applications as Web Services, and enabling 'consumers'
to invoke these components, businesses can strengthen their ability
to integrate enterprise applications and interact with current and
potential customers and partners. In this new distributed, service-based
environment, transactions in the form of XML message exchange allow
for just-in-time integration and deployment of modular bits of application
logic for performing specific business tasks. Next generation Web
Services will be described, published, discovered, and invoked at
run-time in a distributed network environment.
The term Web Service is used by various groups to describe widely
differing concepts. This has complicated discussions and market
conditioning.
Infrastructure software vendors, like Microsoft, IBM, Sun/iPlanet,
Oracle, and others are the primary vendors who claim responsibility
for engendering the Web Services movement. They tend to support
the traditional W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard definitions
and view Web Services as a programming protocol that can expose
aggregations of objects and content over the Internet, thereby turning
the Internet into a dynamic medium for programmable information
exchange.
This is the usage of the term Web Service that we are adopting
in this paper. In it's technical definition it is not a service
you can buy, rent, or write a contract around. The term "service"
used here is in a software architectural sense - what "service"
or function does one hunk of software code provide to another if
called upon to help out. This concept is as old as software is itself,
from do loops to callable subroutines to object brokering. But now,
the mechanism for invoking a service is via HTTP, so therefore we
call today's architecture Web Services. And since the nature of
this architecture engenders new methods for collaboration and new
opportunities for injecting value into a business ecosystem, it
could go full circle; with bits of application logic, objects, and
content being created by entities and sold and bartered to other
entities across a Web network fabric. If this happens, then this
new software architectural concept will really earn its name.
The term Web Service is also used by ASPs to define specific applications
that are built for web usage, packaged as a product, and delivered
in a variety of service models. ASPs deliver a closed 'black box'
application while Web Services are inherently extensible. ASPs offer
a dynamic business model for hosting and delivering applications
and are not fundamentally about the technology that is used. Web
Services, the way we define them in this discussion, may enable
some new business models, but they're fundamentally a technology
definition.
Content delivery vendors and e-commerce payment processing vendors
have defined what they provide as Web Services too. Their definition
centers on the value delivered to the customer. In their view, these
Web Services are applications -- pieces of business functionality
-- served up over the Web.
The businesses that call their product Web Services today may leverage
the technology that we are calling Web Services to enhance their
Web Service product offerings in the future. Clear as mud, right?
That's why there is often some confusion when discussing Web Services.
From this point on we will use the term Web Services to refer strictly
to the software architectural model described at the beginning of
this section.
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Barbara Angius Saxby (barbara@accelentmarketing.com)
founded Accelent (www.accelentmarketing.com)
to help software startups accelerate marketing strategies, planning,
and execution. She specializes in positioning and launching enterprise
infrastructure and application companies. Barbara is a senior marketing
executive with over 20 years experience in strategic marketing management
and has done extensive work internationally.
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