Web services could provide a cost-effective way of distributing
corporate data.
A growing problem facing IT managers is how to integrate wireless
applications and the wide variety of mobile devices into corporate
systems. Web services technology could provide a way of doing this
without blowing the IT budget on complex and costly integration
projects.
Microsoft and Vodafone are working together on mobile web services
that would enable developers and users to take advantage of
wireless applications. In a keynote presentation at the ITU Telecom
World show last autumn, Bill Gates and Vodafone chief executive Ian
Maxwell, outlined an initiative for defining technology
specifications to allow developers to exploit mobile web services
using standards-based tools and techniques.
The two hope the industry as a whole will adopt a services-based
approach to IT/telecoms integration. This will bring about a
convergence between the PC and mobile worlds. Issues that need to
be addressed include how to integrate GSM-based security with web
services architecture; ensuring the availability of location
information; and the assimilation of messaging and payment
protocols within the web services framework.
Mobile web services enable the user to take advantage of wireless
applications, such as mobile messaging, location-based services and
user authentication, from any type of device.
This can be achieved by using an XML-based web services
architecture, allowing developers to build new, innovative services
across both fixed and wireless networks. Microsoft and Vodafone
hope to encourage developers by providing the commercial
opportunity and framework to allow them to build these convergent
services.
Industry standards in communication technologies will enable the
evolution of an environment where applications can be quickly
integrated with communication services in a "plug-and-play" manner.
The main requirements for many mobile enterprise users are ease of
use and agility, which can be facilitated by the use of mobile web
services.
Challenges remain with using web services, such as security and
management, but in the mobile environment performance
considerations are paramount. In some circumstances this could make
the technology an inappropriate choice.
For instance, the discovery and negotiation required to identify
and acquire a service can add a significant overhead at the
beginning of a transaction. This can be exacerbated by the limited
amount of bandwidth usually available to wireless applications and
the minimal memory and processing power in some mobile devices.
In addition, using XML increases the amount of data transferred
between the server and the device because the XML code needs to be
translated. However, with 3G services now available and handsets
becoming more powerful, these operational issues should not be as
restrictive as in the past.
The Mobile Web Services Technical Roadmap published by Microsoft
and Vodafone last autumn outlines the direction that the companies
believe mobile web services should take. The roadmap details a
framework around which a web services approach can be adopted,
allowing the deployment of new services and products capable of
bridging the gap between corporate IT and mobile environments.
Initially, a specification will be developed that includes SMS,
Multimedia Messaging Service and location-based services. It will
also aim to optimise the core web services protocols for the
resource-constrained mobile environment.
Despite Microsoft and Vodafone's stated aim of creating an industry
standard, there is some scepticism on the part of other suppliers,
which believe the partners are looking to gain competitive
advantage from this initiative.
However, mobile web services, and to a lesser extent web services
as a whole, are at an early stage in development and sometimes it
needs a small number of evangelist organisations to drive the
formulation of industry standards. Although the objective of
convergence between the mobile and traditional IT environments is a
laudable one, it will not be achieved unless all interested parties
and standards bodies are involved in the process.
Microsoft and Vodafone are not alone in promoting mobile web
services. IBM's web services toolkit for mobile devices enables the
development of applications for mobile devices, gateway devices,
and intelligent controllers using a web services architecture.
IBM's Websphere Studio Device Developer (WSDD) includes support for
the JSR172 J2ME runtime environment, which has been optimised for
mobile devices. Using WSDD, it is possible to develop, implement,
maintain and monitor applications that use web services on mobile
and gateway devices.
PalmSource, in partnership with IBM, also offers a web services
toolkit for mobile devices. It provides tools and a run-time
environment that enable developers to create applications that
exploit web services on the Palm OS platform.
In the PalmSource implementation a number of functions control
Simple Object Access Protocol (Soap) messages. Soap
interoperability is accomplished with an API, hiding the Soap
details from the developer and allowing most of their time to be
spent on the important business logic.
It should be noted that the current release of the toolkit is for
evaluation purposes only and may not be implemented in the same way
in future releases of Palm OS.
Other mobile web services initiatives include Sun's Javafirst
project to make web services available on mobile devices, and
Symbian's Action Engine mobile web services platform, targeted at
mobile network operators and enterprise customers, which aims to
exploit the latest smartphone capability.
The Dexterra Mobility Platform, which provides a foundation for
field worker services, has been developed using web services as a
core technology, along with Microsoft .net. This enables
non-intrusive integration with existing systems and compatibility
with any type of IT infrastructure or device.
The majority of current web services deployments focus on
integrating existing systems and wrapping of legacy applications to
form standardised components, thereby maximising existing
infrastructure investments. Another important aspect of web
services, as yet not fully realised, is to communicate data as
useful information to all enterprise stakeholders.
The use of web services in this way looks equal to the challenge of
providing mobile knowledge distribution.
Mark Blowers is senior research analyst at
Butler Group
www.butlergroup.com