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October 10, 2003

Web Services: It's About Connections

What do Web services really mean for your organization? The most important effect will be a blurring of internal and external services, spurring a need for new architecture. Thanks to competition, the result will be higher-quality software carried by connected services

by Douglas K. Barry

Continued from Page 1

The Service Architecture

A service-oriented architecture is essentially a collection of services. These services communicate with each other using the connections and message vocabularies. For Web services, this involves SOAP, WSDL, various other specifications mentioned previously and XML vocabularies.² The communication can involve either simple data passing or two or more services coordinating some activity.

A service is a function that is well defined, self-contained, and doesn't depend on the context or state of other services. In addition to Web services and XML standards, the industry will standardize on the capabilities of various services over time.

The AV component analogy fits well here. Each component is well defined: the industry has decided what are the basic functions of a DVD player, a VCR, and so on. Each AV component is self-contained; you do not need a VCR, for example, to use a CD player. Finally, one AV component does not depend on another component. For example, the television doesn't need to be on to record using the VCR. True, if you play the recorded tape, you can't see what's being played when the TV isn't turned on. Nevertheless, the VCR still doesn't need to know the context or state of the TV.

The industry will define standard capabilities of CRM, ERP, and other services. These services will become standard and could, in some ways, be seen as commodities.³ These services may come in various forms just as AV components do today. You can buy a DVD player bundled with a VCR or buy each component separately. Nevertheless, over the next few years, the industry will standardize on the capabilities of various services much like the AV industry has standardized on its components.

What does this mean for software development? It means fewer people writing and more organizations buying software instead of building it. Continuing with the AV analogy: I am old enough to have built my share of audio and other systems with Heathkit electronics products. But the Heathkit era for electronics is over, and I believe most software development will go the same way.

Internal/External: A Blur

In a service-oriented architecture, the distinction between internal and external services will become less apparent. This will create a dynamic environment in which software vendors compete on features or innovations independent of the standard connections. This could include such things as user interfaces, automated software agents, rule-based systems, or user profiles that allow for highly customized interactions.

Such market forces will also affect internal development. In some organizations, it will be difficult for an internal development group to compete with a software vendor that can recoup development costs by having more customers than any internal development organization could imagine. The external vendor can achieve a better product at a lower cost because of specialization. Internal development organizations will, therefore, move toward doing less development. Internally, the emphasis will shift to making all the connections work properly and integrating new services that might give an organization a competitive edge. An organization might also decide to provide a unique service that can be sold to other organizations.

Of course, organizations will buy only vendor-provided products and services if the software is of sufficient quality. Sometimes an organization develops its own software because it experienced poor quality, vendor-provided software. Vendors planning to compete in this environment must be prepared to provide very high-quality software and a high level of customer service. Treating services as commodities will allow an organization to switch services relatively easily if it perceives that either the quality of software is poor, or that it isn't receiving sufficient support on any software-related issues.

Peering into the Future

The effect of Web services and service-oriented architectures will be fewer people involved in IT. The jobs in IT will also generally change to creating architectures and, often, realizing those architectures by making the connections to packaged services. Software quality will improve.

As time goes on, the industry will standardize on the capabilities of various services. The AV industry eventually settled on the capabilities of various AV components. The same will happen in every industry. As this happens, it will become easier to buy services and hook them together. We will have fewer and fewer people building custom software.