Web Services: The path to Service Orientated Architecture  

Web Services is the current answer to "the problem", but what is the question?. As an industry we typically leap to answers without properly forming the question, or it is really all about requirements. No business person has a web services problem today and will not have one in the future. One of the current views of web services is CORBA Redux; and looking at the current load of specifications being published we are in danger of web services being reduced to this.

Forward looking CIO's have and are organizing their businesses around core competencies and looking at their infra-structure from the outside in. They are determine the services that business units need to deliver to both within the corporation and to partners and customers. This move to service orientated architectures is where using web services to provide the loosely coupled architecture to integrate these core competencies will result in huge competitive advantages. This is problem that web services will solve - enabling loosely coupled business solutions to be built around SOA.

Creating a service orientated architecture should be the core competence of CIO's and then orchestrating services using secure reliable and managed connections. If the connections between services are hard wired the ability to modify services and enhance the business becomes locked down to the first few connections. The major limitation of current approaches is the requirement for hardwiring connections. Without the ability to develop loosely coupled networks service orientated architectures will be constrained to a few hardwired connections. Web services are the glue that enable loosely coupled interactions between services and the creation of mutual value chains where the benefits and provided to all participants and the cost/friction is lowered for all.

It is the combination of SOA, orchestration of the services through web services that allows the integration to be loosely coupled. This ensures that every participant can optimize their business independantly of all other participants. Without the ability to orchestrate loosely coupled relationships SOA will be reduced to CORBA Redux which will provide few benefits......

posted by John McDowall | 9:02 PM