Toward Integration WS-Nonexistent Standards

Beginning with SOAP, Web Services (WS) have now been around for about five years. They have reached the point where mainstream customers are beginning to use them or at least seriously consider doing so. Based on my own experience, most successful WS applications reside inside the enterprise, where they help integrate disparate systems. Typically, these integrations are based on fairly simple uses of SOAP and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), with homegrown security also present in some cases. What hasn’t occurred in that same timeframe is significant WS standardization. The numerous WS specifications introduced by various parties over the past few years, which I’ll discuss in more detail later, show that there’s a clear desire to fill out the WS architecture stack. Unfortunately, converting those specifications into actual industry standards is elusive. Although polls and surveys seem to indicate that companies are poised to spend more on WS development in 2005, the lack of actual WS standardization could hurt the industry.