Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Web Services
Computer science is now in an important period of abstraction. A genera-
tion ago, we learned to abstract from hardware - now we are progressing
by learning to abstract from software. This abstraction is achieved through
service-oriented architectures (SOAs), which allow us to reuse and combine
software components via standardized interfaces, arbitrarily combining them
to serve our needs.
Web services and service-oriented architectures are rather new technologies
with the common goal of making software components and business applica-
tions available via standardized interfaces, within or across enterprise bound-
aries. These technologies will facilitate simpler development of distributed
applications and the integration of existing software solutions. The two major
application areas of Web service technologies are as follows:
•
Enterprise application integration (EAI).
The integration of legacy ap-
plications and systems, which have often been used reliably over years,
is becoming a significant, if not the most important, factor in IT. There
is a strong need for the development of flexible EAI solutions instead of
expensive reimplementation.
•
E-commerce.
The existing Web interfaces which various providers offer
to their customers mark only the beginning of an increasing economic
sector. Online stores and electronic marketplaces - empowered by Web
service technologies - could profit greatly by integrating and combining
their current services into more powerful, value-added services via common
software interfaces.
Web service technology promises to offer the technical infrastructure for
both these key areas.
Basically, Web services allow access to a functionality via the Web using
a set of open standards that make the interaction independent of implemen-
tation aspects such as the operatingsystem platform and the programming
language used. The core set of Web service standards enable a set of basic
interactions required in a service-oriented architecture, as depicted in Fig. 4.1.
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