Web services: the latest and greatest invention from the IT
industry to form the backbone of application components an ocean of
companies providing widgets to be used by subscribers where the
little guy can publish a service that's used in applications all
over the globe. Use Web services or your business will fail!
Does any of this sound familiar or reminiscent of the hype of the
dotcom era?
In essence, Web services are a sound idea. They are a means of
integrating applications, of making them available to application
builders, of streamlining automated processes, and making them
available to partners, suppliers and customers. The idea that Web
services can provide easy integration to already automated business
processes inside an orchestrated business process management system
is appealing. But do we really expect to see Acmewidget. com
providing Web services to form part of a mission-critical system? I
think not.
There's no doubt that Web services will be useful for integrating
existing automated processes within an enterprise, or where
companies collaborate on a business project. In other words, they
will find most use where the commercial requirements for security
and service levels exist already. They will also find a role in
non-mission critical areas such as Web content or internal
applications. So why don't I buy the dream?
Imagine a banking application: a true mission critical system. Is
it likely that this bank will happily plug together hundreds of Web
services to produce the application? What about security and
availability? Would the bank be happy to delegate the
responsibility to Acmewidget.com? Or would it look for
comprehensive service level agreements and stringent security
assurance?
To overcome these issues the bank would have to administer hundreds
of service contracts with Web service providers, including not just
those with the primary service provider but the back-up service
providers as well.
It's true that in some cases banks co-operate with other companies
which could, conceivably, become Web service providers to them.
Credit checks have long since been provided by third parties. The
point is that these relationships are tightly controlled and
monitored and are relatively few in numbers. The banks expect a
service level and have vetted their partners to ensure they do.
Somehow, "trust me I'm a Web service" just doesn't do the
trick.
The adoption of Web services in mission critical applications is
like jumping off a cliff and hoping that the ground is soft and not
very far away. Ask your board members if they wouldn't mind
outsourcing their main business system to a large number of dotcom
businesses. They will politely admire your enthusiasm for
technology and show you the door.
In organisations that are already in a commercial agreement such as
collaborating construction companies, key customer relationships,
or different agencies in local or national government, Web services
could be the key to simplifying the integration of the required
inter-company processes. Web services cannot stand on their own,
however, they logically fit as a sub-set to a wider view of
business process management.
I mention government agencies as an example of where Web services
could be of great benefit. These agencies, in theory at least, are
all trusted parties and so the service, security and desired result
are more likely to be reliable and predictable.
We are on the up-ramp of marketing hype and will soon sink into a
trough of disillusionment. Following this, however, there will be a
period of clarity, where Web services will find its appropriate
place in the market. That place will be one of easy integration
with internal or trusted external systems supporting a business
process management platform.
Web services are not an economic revolution, just an easy way of
integrating components. Trust will still be the key issue, so
non-mission critical applications will benefit from global
providers of Web service components, along with carefully
controlled applications which link with trusted and reliable
sources from partners, suppliers and customers. Will your business
fail if you don't use Web services? Definitely not.
Richard Wall is sales and marketing director at BSoftB