Web services which can deliver software as a service are at least a
decade away and perhaps even unattainable, according to a report
from market analysis firm IDC.
To fulfil the vision of software as a service, Web services will
need to be built primarily from software components and elements
that must be identified, located, accessed, and dynamically
assembled into customisable turnkey applications, IDC said. This
vision cannot be implemented in its entirety using current
technologies and application development methodologies, according
to IDC.
Additionally, the need for Web services to share components and
data raises difficult business, legal, and contractual issues. IDC
believes Web services may never achieve the full-scale magnitude
envisioned by proponents.
"There's been a lot of hype and expectations set [regarding] the
capabilities of what Web services can achieve," said IDC research
director and author of the report, Rikki Kirzner.
"Some of that is achievable today, some will be achievable in three
to five years, and some will never be achievable," Kirzner
said.
Today, Web services provide integration. In three to five years,
Web services will support software as services behind a firewall or
on a private network, Kirzner said. The more sophisticated uses -
the pulling together of software to provide a customised
application - is years away, if it ever happens at all, she
said.
Obstacles to implementation include creating software as services
based on components from third parties, the fundamental changes
users will have to make in how they view software assets and
intellectual property rights, semantics, standards, security, and
privacy issues.
Despite the challenges, the concept of Web services provides a
compelling way for IT to become more responsive and adaptable to
changing business requirements, IDC said. But Web services goals
must be realistic.
An official at BEA Systems, which participates in the Web Services
Interoperability Organisation, said he agreed with the report to
some extent about the limitations of Web services.
"I think the first sentence, where IDC says Web services are
proving their value today, we absolutely totally agree with that,"
said John Kiger, director of Web services marketing for BEA. Users
are already delivering software as services today, he added.
"I think what IDC is talking about [in noting limitations] is
pushing this vision of an Internet filled with Web services
components where businesses locate and dynamically create business
relationships, dynamically accessing these Web services over the
Internet. What we believe is that vision in its most grandiose form
fails to take into account the fundamentals of business
relationships," Kiger said.
Business relationships are based on trust and assumed or explicit
levels of service, which do not happen through dynamic creation of
these relationships, Kiger said. For example, an airline would not
dynamically contract through the Web for jet fuel; it would want
knowledge of the fuel supplier's capabilities, he said.