Web services solutions

Challenges:

The base protocols for deploying Web services-based software applications are currently inadequate to support complex implementations. Security is a concern for Web services extending beyond a firewall, but work on security-oriented protocols is well under way. The ability to coordinate multiple Web services is another limitation, and managing the interactions among various Web services components is also a challenge.

Near-Term Solutions:

Organizations that want to move in the direction of complex, transaction-oriented Web services can avail themselves of enterprise application integration products, which offer coordination and transaction capabilities. The cost and proprietary nature of this approach, however, may be drawbacks. Organizations also can use business process management tools to build a software layer to manage their Web services. Another option is to deploy traditional systems management products, one of the newer Web services management tools or some combination of the two.

Longer-Term Solutions:

A number of protocols are in the works that promise to create a standard approach for building complex Web services. Among those are Web Services Coordination and Web Services Transaction, which IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and BEA Systems Inc. originally authored. Formally approved standards could be months away, and standards for managing Web services will lag behind those for coordinating transactions.