The Essential Guide to Web Services

One of the more confusing things about Web services is the very termitself. The word services conjures up visions of people paying forsomething and getting something back. But at the most basic level, Webservices are just a new flavor of standards-based software technologythat lets programmers combine existing computer systems in new ways,over the Internet, within one business or across many.

Web services let companies bridge communications gaps - betweensoftware written in different programming languages, developed bydifferent vendors or running on different operating systems.

An example here might help. The Bekins Co., a Hillside, Ill.-basedcompany that handles logistics and transportation for manufacturersand retailers, relies on a network of trucking partners to ship tonsof big-ticket goods coast to coast. It needed a faster and morereliable way to let its trucking partners know about excess freightsitting on the loading dock, waiting to be shipped - faster thanphoning and faxing. Until recently, getting Bekins' mainframe-basedscheduling system to talk to its partners' transportation managementsystems would have meant painstakingly hand-coding links to eachone - years of work. Yet by using Web services, Bekins was able to letits system talk to any of its partners' systems - and to let thosepartners talk back - over the Internet. And it was able to do that injust three months.

That sounds simple enough. But to add to the confusion, you'll hearthe term Web services used in several ways. It describes the overallapproach to stitching software programs together and building newsystems over the Internet. It can refer to the specific software thatlinks two or more systems; you could say that Bekins "wrote a Webservice" to share information with its partners. People talk about theday when companies will be able to "rent" ready-made Web services fromother companies - and the day when consumers will eventually be able tosubscribe to Web services too. What unifies all the term's uses is the notionthat Web services run over the Internet - or Internet protocol-basednetworks, such as intranets - and are built on a specific set ofsoftware standards.

Why are Web services receiving so much attention?