Web Services Seek Interoperability

On February 6, IBM, Microsoft and a large group of Web Services vendors and customers announced the WS-I or Web Services Interoperability Organization. 

The organization is an industry initiative for Web Services, designed to promote and accelerate adoption and deployment by promoting web service interoperability.  They will do this by promoting a common, clear definition of web standards, integrating specifications from various standards bodies and providing implementation guidance and tools for customers.

Accenture, BEA, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP;   Community Members are expected to have both the ability to make market impact and contributions to the organization.  They include:   Akamai Technologies Inc., Autodesk Inc., Borland, Business Objects, Cape Clear Software Inc., Commerce One, CommerceQuest, Compaq Computer Corp., Corechange Inc., Corillian Corp., Daimler/Chrysler AG, Dassault Systemes, J.D. Edwards, Epicentric, Epicor Software Corp., ESRI, FileNET, Flamenco Networks, Ford Motor Co., FrontRange Solutions Inc., Grand Central Networks Inc., Groove Networks Inc., IONA, Jamcracker Inc., Kana Inc., Loudcloud Inc., Macromedia Inc., McAfee.com, Onyx Software Corp., Peregrine Systems, Pivotal Corp., Plumtree Software Inc., POSC.org, Qwest Communications Inc., Rational Software Corp., RealNames Corp., Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Sabre Holdings Corp., SAS Institute, Sybase Inc., Toshiba TEC Corp., United Airlines, Versata Inc., VeriSign, and webMethods Inc.

Working Groups, made up of board and community members, will create all of the WS-I deliverables.

The deliverables will include Profiles (Named sets of specifications, with guidelines as to how they best work together), Implementation Scenarios (solutions scenarios based on customer requirements), and Test Suites (sample solutions, testing tools, supporting documentation, and white papers).  The WS-I will not do testing, as they expect the process to be self-certifying; that is, vendors and users will test their software for interoperability using the test suites and only claim they meet the standard where they pass.

We queried the Dr. Robert Sutor of IBM and Andrew Layman of Microsoft, the guiding energy behind the initiative, as to how a Profiles would be created if different vendors had already implemented against a standard in conflicting ways (as often occurs).  They replied that this is a consensus building effort and they’d start where there was consensus and work toward building consensus in other areas.

WS-I has an ambitious roadmap.  After initial Board and Community meetings in February, it intends to plan a first deliverable release of a Basic Profile, possibly including XML, XML Named Spaces, UDDI, WSML, etc.  This would likely occur this year. More profiles will follow, against a schedule to be announced following the meetings.

In case you’re wondering if someone is missing, we’ll save you the trouble of figuring it out.  Sun isn’t here.  Queried at the Sun Analyst Conference (conveniently going on nearly simultaneously), Sun said they were invited late on Monday night (February 4), not in time to even read the legal paperwork, much less make a decision.  Membership is open to all interested parties, so we’d suspect that Sun will be joining – they’re the only major Web Services player missing and while it’s difficult to know which of these alliances, partnerships, and initiatives will be the lasting ones, this one looks too influential to pass up.

An important aspect here is the active solicitation of membership by large customers and their interest in participating.  This will lend credibility to the WS-I while insuring that its efforts are useful to customers and used by them.  

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