Web Services: A New Dimension for Business Integration

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Web ServicesA New Dimension for Business
Integration Automation

• Wafa KhorsheedEastern Michigan University

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Presentation Roadmap

• The Setting Why Web Services are important?
• The Vision of Web Services
• A new dimension of business automation
• Distributed computation, agents, workflow
  collaboration
• Where are we now?
• The current state an emerging frontier
• Some real-world examples - Crossing the chasm

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The Setting Why Web Services are important?
Customers top strategic software platform
project over the next year
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Why is Integration so Difficult?

• Software forms deep roots (not unlike language
  culture) and is hard to pull out
• once used, built upon, relied on, ingrained
• can't afford to disrupt, change
• (its like open-heart surgery on your company!)
• Vendors liked this lock-in
• But Who's running whom? Software or Business?
• Technology can be a barrier to dynamic business
• company A to company B
• work out interoperation (EDI, etc.... 2 - 5 yr
  process)
• now comes company C better company
• can't afford to connect!
• Technology too rigid, too tightly coupled.

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Then, suddenly, the Internet morphed into the Web

• Tim Berners-Lee joined two pre-existing things
• hypertext (HTTP HTML) and the Internet (TCP/IP)
• Like a seed-crystal in a supersaturated solution
• The Lattice structure of the Web sprang forth!
• Web of IP addresses -gt BANG! -gt Web of Documents
• Why did it take off?
• The model was right, resonated strongly with the
  world
• Based on simple (ASCII-text), ubiquitous
  protocols
• Evolutionary formula
• Existing infrastructure ubiquitous, simple open
  standards Next Generation Infrastructure

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The 1st Wave of the Web
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The Web is Alive and Evolving!

• XMLs universal description abstraction
• Applied first to world of documents formats
  (nouns)
• Now applied to the infrastructure itself
• APIs, Object models, Language, platforms (verbs)
• Best form of integration ever!
• English (language) inserted in Computers (math)
• lttagsgt everywhere lt/tagsgt
• XML the Calculus of the New Millennium Craig
  Burton
• The result?
• Model allows for dynamism change (the calculus)
• Freedom of choice, loose coupling INTEGRATION!
• Web Services are born!
• Next round of standards SOAP, WSDL, UDDI

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The 2nd Wave of the Web

• Follows the same formula as the 1st Wave
• Existing infrastructure ubiquitous, simple open
  standards Next Generation Infrastructure

• Web of Documents -gt BANG! -gt Web of Programs

• Tim Berners-Lee Web Services / Semantic Web

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Rise of the Programmatic Web

• Primeval web services in the 1st wave
• stock quotes, weather forecasts, maps, traffic
  conditions, buy-buttons
• targeted at human eyeballs via a browser
• Web Services shift the focus from human
  interfaces to programmatic interfaces
• They may exist along side, or below human
  interfaces, or they may not have human
  corollaries
• Allow for automation of current "manual"
  browser-based, human-run interactions.
• Our apps can do the work behind the scenes for us
• Many tasks will be automated and run without
  having to bring up a browser!

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Industry Views

• "Businesses that ignore its potential or decide
  to sit out its early stages will find themselves
  outpaced by rivals that take advantage of Web
  services to improve their agility and even to
  transform themselves into new kinds of
  enterprises."
• David Smith, Vice President and
  Research Director for Gartner.
• "Web services are extremely inexpensive and
  relatively easy to try because they are
  extensions of application servers and existing
  e-business platforms."
• by Donoato, Durchslag, Hagel of Grand Central
  Networks.

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Platform, Language Object Model I n d
e p e n d e n c e ! ! !

• What is a web service?
• any program that is callable by another program
  across the web in a platform/language/object
  model independent manner, using standard web
  protocols (XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, etc)
• Technology Agnostic
• Key differentiator from previous attempts
• customer has freedom of choice for infrastructure
  products
• maintain value in their past choices, investments
  and skills
• Provides for a much bigger marketplace of
  interoperability
• for vendors, 3rd parties, SIs, customers....everyo
  ne!

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Platform independence
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A Business-centric View

• Web services allow businesses to
• describe functionality (services) they want to
  externalize
• publish that information
• discover services from other businesses
• connect to each other and invoke services with
  appropriate security, reliability, and privacy
• If every business is seen as a "business machine"
• Web services enables logical models of these
  machines to be connected into a world of
  integrated business machines
• In essence businesses establish company APIs
  and then interlink to each others processes
  across the Web

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Software Industry or Business Industry?

• With each new Software Development improvement
• New wave of providers of libraries and components
• horizontal vertical
• New business/licensing models
• Shrink-wrap seal agreements -gt Download
  agreements
• This will be true with Web Services components
  too
• At first, new business models (subscriptions,
  etc.)
• Then common-functionality web services will
  eventually be "free" (great synergy with Open
  Source)
• In parallel with this "common" marketplace
• A plethora of service offerings almost as
  numerous as the number of businesses
• (like each web site is unique on a per-business
  basis)
• Huge increase in demand for customization
• IT/In-house skills, or System Integrators/Consulta
  nt

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Where Will Web Services be Used?

• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
• integrate diverse systems on various platforms
• Business Partner integration and automation
• Same as EAI, except you don't control all of the
  systems
• Business to Consumer applications
• web interface or application UI
• Pervasive computing
• messaging to/from handhelds
• Systems management
• monitoring / controlling web services deployment

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WSDL in a nutshell

• Web Services Description Language
• the "Braille" for programs to understand the
  shape of other programs
• an XML dialect/vocabulary to describe the web's
  "verbs", interfaces, APIs, processes
• Wrap existing software, regardless of language
• keep results in UDDI
• ... or right on your web page (WS-Inspection
  new)
• Sent for standardization to W3C in March 2001
• Foundation for other higher-level "description"
  standards (i.e. WSFL, WSIL, etc)
• Tool vendors will automate process
• auto-inspection of current components
• IBM's WebSphere Studio Application Developer on
  AlphaWorks
• Microsoft Studio.net for VB, other languages...

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UDDI in a nutshell

• Universal Description, Discovery, Integration
• protocol org
• 3 founders -gt 30 at announce
• now over 300 companies
• Free web-wide Business Registry
• register businesses as white page entries
• under yellow pages categories
• also list web services so software can automate
  the integration between e-businesses!!
• Distributed (like DNS)

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UDDI Registry Data
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UDDI _at_ work
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Corporate Priority for Web ServicesNext 24 months
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Example of layered services
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In conclusion

• Web Services the 2nd Wave of the Web
• The Catch-word of what web services enable?
• INTEGRATION
• Open Standards matter more today than every
  before!
• Huge shifts in software business models
• Rise of infrastructure services
• Fall of platform-specific SW packages
• Get back to real re-useable value
• Automate accelerate business integration