Web Services are all the rage these days, in an industry that changes its mind about what’s “hot” about as fast as the fashion industry. But the fact that Web Services are garnering a great deal of hype shouldn’t mask the fact that they are shaping up to have an absolutely critical impact on the future landscape of the technology world. Could this be the final battle between Microsoft and the Java community? Depends on whom you talk to.
XML?
So what is a Web Service? Again it truly depends whom you’re asking, but at the most basic level a Web Service is an open interface that allows for the interoperability of diverse applications. As it stands, XML is garnering most of the attention, as the new standard in Web Services, with other systems like SOAP also making noise.
Web Services are important because they provide the ability to create very loosely coupled systems without a care to the language or platform being used. XML and other Web Services also enable a completely new level of interaction with computer data — above and beyond what the current server and HTML-based Internet offers.
This basic concept has been attempted in the past. CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model), and others were earlier manifestations. But they have been viewed as too difficult to implement to achieve real success.
Michael Smith, technology evangelist at BEA Systems, which is heavily involved in developing Web Services products, gives an example of how Web Services might function: “We are working with a lot of companies that make devices — printers, faxes and office equipment. They are seeing a new avenue for revenue, making their devices continually chat with whatever they are doing, so that they can offer the customers a higher level of productivity. They don’t want to embed Windows or Java, but with Web Services they can buy cheap chips, embed Linux, somehow put an XML stack in and they’re done.”
The promise is that the interoperability that Web Services enables will help solve the single biggest problem facing enterprise software users — namely, interoperability itself.
Take Off the Gloves
Microsoft has taken the stance that because Web Services are by nature open standards, the fact that they are “betting the farm” on Web Services by making them central to the all important .Net platform strategy is proof of good faith and fair competition (see interview page 54). .Net supports more than twenty different programming languages.
But Sun, BEA, and others in the Java camp see things a little differently. For all software companies the object of developing Web Services is to further their own interests. For Microsoft, BEA, Sun, IBM and others it’s about building revenues and selling their products — operating systems, servers, other software.
Smith continues bluntly, “It is J2EE vs. Microsoft. Microsoft has taken a very wide brush and said that everything is .Net and everything is painted under Web Services and therefore it’s all peace, love, and happiness, but the thirty languages only run on Windows, and you compile to that. But more importantly you have to look at the standards bodies and fight this out. What you see is a whole host of companies getting behind things that will have royalty and distribution licensing fees applied to every level of use. Those typically are the ones Microsoft is pushing. You have a whole other camp, and not just a Sun or J2EE camp, but also some of the open standards bodies, that are trying to push a royalty free model. That is a whole other battle.”
Essentially Microsoft is embracing Web Services, and also hoping that customers will find it advantageous to buy more Microsoft products. The same is essentially true of Sun and BEA for their products.
Dan’l Lewin, VP of business development for Microsoft .Net, responds to the idea of joining standards bodies by humorously pointing out that his company hasn’t been invited to join. The turf wars remain, and this is where the niceties end.
Despite the interoperability that they promise, it’s absolutely clear Web Services will not eliminate the ferocious competitive battles that exist in the software world. Microsoft, Sun and BEA will defend their turf. Even enterprise software giants like Oracle rely on the tightly-guarded and proprietary aspects of their systems for business, and a shift to more open systems may not be in their best interests.
The Business
So, is this all just hype? What kind of near-term impact can Web Services have on the software business, in terms of actually generating revenues?
Marge Breya, VP of Sun ONE, at Sun Microsystems, is spearheading Sun’s Web Services effort. She suggests, “It’s really about creating interchangeable parts — from a business process standpoint. Ultimately, what we’re going to see in the first wave is a lot of hype about consumer services, but the real work happening within enterprises trying to decide how to go ahead and componentize business processes.”
Lewin at Microsoft agrees with Breya that despite excitement about consumer applications, the key for now will be getting Web Services deployed in the enterprise.
Mark Lussier, chief software architect at GE Power, a multibillion-dollar division of the corporate giant, jokes, “Being the company that we are, I run every version of every enterprise software system on the planet. So, I arguably have one of the hardest integration efforts around.” Lussier points out that at DHL in 1995, before the buzz about XML, he was implementing similar, more complex, systems to achieve the same kinds of functionality.
He reveals, “What’s missing for me is the tool set. At our level we deal with a lot of major companies. They’re not going to do what they’re told, they’re going to assume that we’re going to take what they give us, primarily because when we do a deal it’s for billions of dollars and we’re not going to be charging them a penny per transaction. Bringing this stuff together and getting the data integrated is going to be an absolute nightmare.”
So, the application integration dream is key for now. For Lussier it’s not about a grand technological vision, it’s still about easily getting inventory checks and quotes to his customers and getting his various enterprise systems in order.
Rajiv Gupta, a general manager at Hewlett Packard, and a Web Services pioneer developing the E-Speak project at HP, explains that his Web Services work has been implemented to cut costs in HPs order fulfillment systems — allowing products to be shipped directly from outsourced manufacturers to customers. That’s a live system that’s generating RoI today. This technology paradigm can work.
Opportunities?
VCs have been taking a keen look at this sector, with startups like Grand Central making some noise. But despite the hype, it could be some time before too many real opportunities arise.
Oddly enough, this is a space where the biggest companies in the market have made a very early move, investing huge resources. It will be tough for smaller companies to tackle that head on. But it’s also clear that businesses still choose to mix and match customized systems, and as the giants fight for supremacy, some major business problems — like the “set of tools” that Lussier describes — remain unsolved. Opportunistic and entrepreneurial technologists may yet reap the rewards of Web Services.
