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Handling Web services with care

December 7, 2003, 6:00 AM PT
By Terry Noreault


As the Web services movement rides the crest of a marketing wave promising "etopia" in full-spectrum business integration, a closer look reveals that many new tools are still not ready for prime time.



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Few Internet-inspired solutions are up to the task of serious integration or able to take full advantage of investments already made in foundation systems. Internet-based services are an important new technology deserving a place in everyone's arsenal of options. But there's also no doubt that the model has considerable maturing to do before it can truly revolutionize business integration. Even with recent noteworthy advancements, the various Web services are hard-pressed to fill the need for business process management and to deliver the level of trading partner intimacy and security that traditional point-to-point systems do.

On the benefits side, Web services and a standardized integration of applications that use Extensible Markup Language (XML) over an Internet backbone undoubtedly have profoundly positive implications. Such services eliminate nagging problems associated with proprietary systems hunched deep in their silos that are unable to interact with anything outside the domain.
Web services also reduce the cost to connect applications and the speed with which the connections are established, even while making software integration faster, cheaper and easier.

inally, Web services deliver on the promise of no custom coding--a Even with recent noteworthy advancements, Web services are hard-pressed to fill the need for business process management. big bonus for today's extremely budget-conscious integration and software development programs. Web services also reduce the cost to connect applications and the speed with which the connections are established, even while making software integration faster, cheaper and easier.

Finally, Web services deliver on the promise of no custom coding--a Even with recent noteworthy advancements, Web services are hard-pressed to fill the need for business process management. big bonus for today's extremely budget-conscious integration and software development programs.

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