The Essential Guide to Web Services

Some Web services pioneers have already started to develop externalapplications,which use Web services to connect to trusted business partners.Overall, however, it will be 12 to 18 months before most mainstreamcompanies start building Web services that cross corporate firewalls,Hein predicts.

In the future, how will web services beused?

Perhaps the biggest Web services hype - and the biggestdoubts - surround future uses of Web services. Vendors and analystsenvision a world where companies will list their Web services inpublic online directories. A company might be able to assemble a wholebusiness by piecing together Web services created and maintained byother companies. For example, a company looking for a way to check thecredit histories of its customers could have its order-processingsoftware automatically scan the Web to find companies that offer acredit-checking Web service, figure out which company offers the bestdeal, negotiate it and then hook up to that company's Web service onthe fly - even if the two companies never did businesstogether before.

But David Schatsky, research director and senior analyst at JupiterMedia Metrix in New York City, believes that this expansive hype won'tbecome a reality any time soon. Too many technological and businessquestions remain unanswered: How will security be handled? How willcompanies make sure that the company delivering a Web service willkeep the service up and running reliably? How will companies pay forthe use of Web services? Who will be held accountable if a Web servicefails to deliver as promised? "Using Web services to dynamicallydiscover and interact with business partners - maybe ones that youdon't already have relationships with - is risky," Schatsky says. Andaccording to Jupiter, it's a risk most companies don't plan on takingany time soon; only 16 percent of IT managers interviewed said thattheir companies plan to pursue this type of Web services use bymid-2002.

When are web services a bad idea?