Web Services - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 172

The use of Web Service standards holds the potential for correcting each
of these deficiencies. This new approach presents applications as services
to each other and enables applications to be rapidly assembled by linking
application objects together.
With the advent of the Internet and its protocols, most vendors and enter-
prises have graduated to a common communication and network protocol—
the Internet's TCP/IP. And with the availability of Web standards such as
Extensible Markup Language (XML); Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP);
Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI); and Web Services
Description Language (WSDL), vendors enable customers to
1. Publish specifications about application modules via WSDL
2. Find those modules (either on the internal intranet or on the Internet)
via the UDDI
3. Bind the applications together to work seamlessly and cooperatively
and deliver the holistic functionality of composite application via
SOAP and XML
Major hardware vendors and certain key software vendors are looking at
these new Web standards for providing solutions for program-to-program
communication. IBM's WebSphere Server environment, Sun Microsystems's
Open Network Environment (ONE) comprised of various Sun technolo-
gies and third-party products, and Microsoft's .NET initiatives deliver Web
Service-based solutions.
The significance of Web Services for the future is by reason of the
following:
• Web Services will enable enterprises to reduce development costs
and expand application functionality at a fraction of the cost per tra-
ditional application development and deployment method.
• Web Services will enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to
bring products to market more quickly and respond to competitive
threats with more flexibility.
• Web Services will enable enterprises to reuse existing legacy appli-
cation functionality with the latest applications and technologies.
• Web Services will obviate the need of porting applications to dif-
ferent hardware platforms and operating systems at great expense.
• Web Services enable applications to communicate irrespective of
platform or operating system.
• Web Services will have the effect of leveling the playing field because
it will enable even specialized boutique application firms to compete