Microsoft
And IBM Join In Support Of Web Services
Web Services have become an
important enabling technology, allowing vendors and users to build
applications more quickly and flexibly.
That’s because:
- Web
Services allow organizations to continue to leverage existing
technology investments
in hardware and software
- Web
Services are based on Open Standards and strong,
cross-platform interoperability specifications.
That means organizations and their suppliers and
customers can organize themselves into information sharing
value chains without the need to write and implement
complete new systems. Often,
they can just quickly connect the systems they already have.
- Web
Services are designed to support interoperability across
multiple hardware platforms and operating systems, development environments, and
applications.
No, it isn’t magic, but it is
hard work.
Two unlikely and hard working
partners in the Web Services arena have been Microsoft and IBM. For the past three years they have been leaders in
coordinating efforts to define basic specifications and build
support across the vendor and customer community.
They participated in getting the basic Web Services standards
– XML, SOAP, and UDDI – broadly accepted and approved by
appropriate standards bodies and they partnered to support the WS-I
specification to set guidelines for how Web Services specifications
would be implemented.
On September 17th,
Microsoft Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates, and IBM’s
Executive Vice President of its Software Group, Steve Mills, met
with media and analysts in New York City to announce that a group of
Advanced Web Services protocols were now ready to pass through a
comment period (during which any vendor or customer may suggest
additions or changes) and would then be submitted to standards
groups for approval. These
are the specifications for Reliable Messaging, Security, and
Transactions.
IBM and Microsoft technical staff
has already created cross-platform code for these specifications and
were able to demonstrate interoperability for a cross-platform
(including both Windows and Linux) customer order scenario using all
of the Advanced Web Services. In
this demonstration of a supply chain, a retail store ordered
merchandise from a manufacturer via its distributor.
Dr. Bob Sutor, a frequent IBM
spokesperson for Web Services, noted that it’s important to have
actual code at the time of the submission of proposed specifications
or standards to the standards bodies as code in hand can
significantly speed up the approval process.
Some press attendees seem fixated
on the thought that Bill Gates, not known for his high opinion of
Linux, had agreed to sit on the same platform as a Linux server, but
Gates put up with the remarks with good nature. Gates and Mills also
handled remarks about the fact that all of the IBM and Microsoft
submissions to standards bodies would only include royalty-free
code, to avoid any barriers to the acceptance or implementation of
proposed standards. Both
agreed that the point was cooperation between competitors to insure
interoperability, and differentiation in the design and
implementation of for-profit applications, where customers would
choose what best suited their needs.
Microsoft and IBM were quick to
note that they have had input and assistance from a number of other
firms, both vendors and users, in working on these specifications.
More will join during the commentary period (anyone is
welcome) and most vendors are likely to be on board by the time the
specifications pass through the standards approval process.
(There has been some vendor maneuvering in the Web Standards
process, as vendors try to use it to demonstrate – or achieve –
power, but generally this is too important for any vendor to want to
be left out.)
All of the specifications
demonstrated last week are expected to be available for the workshop
comment process this fall. This
means they are likely to be submitted to standards bodies in the
first half of 2004. Gates
and Mills expect, of course, to see them supported by their .NET and
WebSphere products.
The Liberty Alliance noted my
enthusiastic reaction to the Microsoft/IBM announcement in the Wall
Street Journal and expressed concern that I appeared less than
knowledgeable about their identity products.
That, of course, isn’t true – they just weren’t part of
the conversation on the 17th.
And perhaps that’s the point.
When it comes to standards, more aren’t necessarily better.
The market usually selects one, over time.
We will, of course, give the Liberty Alliance, its chance to
give us an update briefing – but every time I make a list of all
the overlaps in proposed Web Services standards, I know we still
have work to do.
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