Web services at your service

Over-hyped, misunderstood and misrepresented, Web services are nevertheless starting to gain ground and within the next two years will be as commonplace as the Internet. But until many of the key standards, including those around security and business processes, are formalised, Web services are destined to remain behind the firewall and within trusted relationships.

Two years ago, when the phrase Web services first made its way into everyday IT speak, the promise was of publicly available business services that could be accessed over the Internet, and mixed and matched to create full-blown business applications.

Two years on, some of the hype is starting to wear off and a new realism is setting in. Although it is still early days on the Web services continuum, the momentum is making the wider adoption of Web services inevitable.

So, what are Web services? Ask 10 people and you`re likely to get 10 definitions, and most will be right in their own way. In fact, it is a hard task to argue that there is a "proper" definition of Web services. Of course, there are the standards bodies that make up much of the core of Web services and there are the individual vendors that each have their own "official" description of Web services. But in truth there is still much confusion in the market as to how much of the technology will play itself out.

As far as definitions go, ask integration specialists and they will tell you that Web services are simply an extension of already existing integration strategies. If you ask application developers, they are likely to offer a more "traditional" view; a view more in line with the vision that has business using "services" stored in repositories around the globe and accessible through the Internet.

In their simplest possible form, Web services are the ability for applications and systems to talk to one another and interact without the necessary involvement of a human operator; hence the tendency to mangle the terms Web services and integration into one. More importantly, what makes Web services largely different from many of the other integration technologies is strict reliance on standards.

One of the widely held misunderstandings of Web services is the idea that Web applications and Web services are the same beast. Not so, even if a Web service manifests as an element of a Web application. A paper on Web services released by Sun Microsystems, one of the key players in the Web services matrix, clears up the distinction between Web services and Web applications:

"What is the difference between a Web application and a Web service? A Web application offers a service that requires the intervention of a user, while a Web service facilitates direct program-to-program interaction without user intervention.

"Developing a separate component, or even buying an off-the-shelf component, is not a new idea. To be able to bind components dynamically and use them at runtime, in a variety of different environments, however, is a relatively new idea. This is one of the primary distinctions between a Web service and a componentised Web application."

Derek Kudsee, integration specialist at Microsoft South Africa, offers another take on Web services: "Quite simply put, Web services mean integration. Among all the hype, a powerful way of integrating heterogeneous systems is now available to every organisation irrespective of size. Leveraging this powerful mechanism of connecting disparate applications, databases and platforms, requires familiarity with a number of open standards. SOAP, WSDL, XML, UDDI and XSLT are the building blocks of the revolution that is Web services.

The idea is to make existing business processes more efficient; it is not about which technology you use to achieve those ends.

Mike van den Bergh, MD, Gateway Communications

"While application integration today can be solved using EAI [enterprise application integration] platform software, Web services provide an extension to the already powerful platform of EAI software offerings, which reduces the barrier to entry so that even the smallest of companies can now integrate their internal systems, connect to their trading partners, and in the near future, expose their internal systems as a service," says Kudsee.

Yet another way to look at Web services is to see them as the latest form of distributed computing, based on XML messages that are, generally, transported using the HTTP protocol. Web services are individual elements or "services" of an application that communicate with other portions of the same or even another application. With XML-based and uniform messages, Web services promise to be lightweight, speedy, and most importantly, accessible from anywhere without requiring high-end hardware or connections.

One issue that is widely agreed upon is the fact that the success of Web services hinges on the development and adoption of robust and open standards. Without these, it is argued, the Web services vision will never be realised.

The first steps toward the realisation of open Web services standards are already well advanced. Through a growing network of organisations and industry committees, such as OASIS (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and WS-I (Web Services Interoperability Organisation), many of the core Web services standards are already in place. A short list includes SOAP, WSDL, XML and UDDI, and many more are already in the advanced stages of negotiation.

An overview of those standards that are already well established offers the following: SOAP, or the Simple Object Access Protocol, allows applications to talk to one another. WSDL, or the Web Services Description Language, is a framework for describing Web services based on XML. With WSDL, systems are able to understand and communicate with services provided by other systems and organisations.

Quite simply put, Web services means integration. Among all the hype, a powerful way of integrating heterogeneous systems is now available to every organisation irrespective of size.

Derek Kudsee, integration specialist, Microsoft SA

To find Web services, two sets of standards have been developed, namely Web Services Inspection Language (WSIL) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), which allow businesses to publish information about their business and the services they offer.

While many of the key elements are already in place, there are just as many that are not, notably the layers and standards relating to security and what could loosely be described as business process management or business process automation elements without which Web services are likely to struggle to take off.

What are the benefits of Web services? Michael Barnes, senior programme director for application delivery strategies at Meta Group, lists the following: lowered integration costs and the ability to future-proof infrastructure. While Web services technology is among the newest available, it is more than capable of working with legacy systems as well as cutting-edge technology. By being able to deliver the services of a legacy system to a new range of devices and channels, business is bound to see significantly improved returns on investment, in effect extracting more return from existing systems.

Jaco van der Merwe, regional delivery manager at Software Futures, agrees: "Web services will offer better and more flexible integration. Web services will also allow business to re-use their components and lower costs as well as allowing users to get more leverage from their legacy systems."

However, Van der Merwe is convinced that Web services, in their original anticipated form, will not be realised until standards around security and the guarantee of delivery have matured. He adds that until bandwidth in SA has significantly increased, Web services will remain hamstrung.

In the interim period, for approximately the next 18 months, says Van der Merwe, Web services will largely be used as an internal mechanism for application integration within organisations.

Neels Lemmer, MD of computer services company Cymaziz, agrees that Web services are still in their infancy. "If I had to guess at where we are on the Web services timeline, I would say we`re still only on the second step. The core underlying standards have been hashed out already but there are still a host of other issues to resolve, like security, business concurrence and business processes.

"Inside the firewall, Web services can already be used," says Lemmer. "But publicly available Web services are at least two years off. Widespread use of Web services inside the firewall is probably only a year off at maximum."

Web services will also allow business to re-use their components and lower costs as well as allow users to get more leverage from their legacy systems.

Jaco van der Merwe, regional delivery manager, Software Futures

Meta`s Barnes agrees. He says that although many of the core elements are in place, the critical business process automation (BPA) ones are still in their early phases and not yet ready for critical business deployment. "BPA standards were initiated late in 2002 and BPA tooling will most likely only standardise sufficiently in 2004." Barnes says this, together with still immature security standards, is a critical hurdle to wider uptake of Web services.

"For Web services to provide true cross-company integration, a number of standards that are currently evolving, need to mature," points out Microsoft`s Kudsee. "These are standards particularly related to the management of a Web services deployment and standards related to the securing of Web services. Security ... is dependent both on current security mechanisms as well as evolving standards that would offer authentication, non-repudiation, encryption and signing."

"Security standards need to mature," says Van der Merwe. "Currently there is no way to guarantee a message delivery, nor is there certainty around how the system will hold up under high volumes of traffic."

There is, however, a widely held belief that Web services have the momentum to overcome these hurdles in the next few years.

"By 2005/6, Web services will be a common mechanism for providing certain coarse-grained services as well as internal business logic for cross-channel usage," says Barnes.

This is an equally key issue for most industry players. Progress Software`s MD Rick Parry says the primary benefit of Web services is the way it will allow businesses to bring new customers into their domain much quicker and easier. "By exposing the individual services of your infrastructure as Web services, it is possible to quickly and efficiently offer that service to other clients, as well as internally," says Parry.

By 2005/6, Web services will be a common mechanism for providing certain coarse-grained services as well as internal business logic for cross-channel usage.

Michael Barnes, senior programme director, Meta Group

"The biggest benefit of Web services," says Van der Merwe, "is the flexible and efficient integration the concept offers. Web services are expected to make it significantly easier to integrate systems."

Web services are not a new concept, says Parry. "I think the key thing to recognise is that this is not something particularly revolutionary or new, but simply an extension of what IT has been doing for years, namely the delivery of application services. But now it is being done through a new media and a new set of still evolving standards, which revolve around the new concept of a `service-oriented architecture`."

Parry is also cautious of the hype that goes with Web services and says one of the biggest hurdles to wider Web services implementations is the lack of understanding of what Web services are. Parry says the "traditional" idea of Web services as being a replacement for existing infrastructure, or Web services being a new set of often-unrelated services is misleading. Instead, services are what IT is delivering already.

"What we are doing with Web services is delivering software as a service. Take any existing application or platform and break it down into its various services. For example, most ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems will have a reporting service and an invoice service, among others. Those are services and we can expose them as Web services. Web services do not have to be new services, but rather they are the deliverables from our existing systems that could be defined as services."

Enabling these to communicate over a transport mechanism such as HTTP makes it a Web service, says Parry.

Gateway Communications` MD Mike van den Bergh has an even broader definition and says Web services are by no means a new concept but rather an extension of integration work already being done. "The idea is to make existing business processes more efficient. It is not about which technology you use to achieve those ends. If you are running a critical system you still need good basic system discipline and be sure that you have proper systems control. The [lack of mature] standards are still a problem," says Van den Bergh, who takes a more pragmatic approach to Web services and the technology his company deploys.

Security is still a major issue, says Sybase`s integration product manager Nick Warren. Security, along with quality of service guarantees and business standards such as ebXML, should be addressed. "Until these are sorted out, Web services will never reach maturity."

But it`s worth the wait, he says, because of the benefits it will offer; benefits such as being able to "leverage" existing infrastructure by tying it all together. "Companies will also be able to avoid having to buy new equipment. And once a service is exposed, the process of opening it up to other clients and devices is very simple.

"In some ways, Web services are the logical extension of the object-oriented programming methodology in which components are re-used by different users and different organisations."

However, there are still issues around standards, says Warren, and until they are resolved, Web services should not be expected to move beyond the firewall. "Web services are going to start internally, where you have control. The idea of publicly available Web services components is currently impractical."

So who is using Web services? Or where are they most likely to appear first? Financial institutions and banks are the widely held number one choice as they are the most heavily invested in this field, says Warren.

I think the key thing to recognise is that this is not something particularly revolutionary or new, but simply an extension of what IT has been doing for years, namely the delivery of application services.

Rick Parry, MD, Progress Software

In general, he says, the larger organisations, often with their own internal development units, are pursuing Web services aggressively. Large ERP companies are also strongly pushing in this direction. Smaller companies are not yet investing in Web services, partially because of the cost factor and the fact that Web services are still seen as experimental.

Software Futures` Van der Merwe says Web services are still a "waiting game". "I would say we are only about 15% along the Web services line and there is still a long way to go." Yet there is a growing demand for Web services, he says. "The biggest demand is from large organisations. As far as the SMB [small and medium business] market goes, Web services will get pushed down to them."

As every large vendor builds Web services into their product line-up, so the momentum grows for business to embrace this new technology. Warren says that while smaller companies are not actively seeking out Web service-enabled applications, they are in fact preparing for the inevitable widespread use of Web services via their natural upgrade cycles. With large corporations and financial institutions already developing Web services, widespread adoption is likely once standards and bandwidth issues are resolved.

There is still a great deal of hype and confusion around the issue of Web services, but the cloud is starting to lift as vendors and users alike adopt a more realistic view of what Web services bring to the technology mix.