NBA 600: Session 25 IT and the General Manager New Technologies: Web Services 22 April 2003

1
NBA 600 Session 25IT and the General
ManagerNew Technologies Web Services22 April
2003

• Daniel Huttenlocher

2
IT and Your Business

• What should a general manager today know about
  information technology?
• IT investment has potential strategic as well as
  operational value
• The best IT investments improve products or
  services not just reduce costs
• Possible because of rapid IT improvements
• Applies to both internal projects and purchases
• Proposed costs and benefits need to make business
  sense
• Takes effort both by IT and business experts

3
What To Do

• An IT-aware general manager should
• Not necessarily be a technology expert
• If an expert, be sure to trust other experts and
  to make business not IT motivated decisions
• Actively look for areas where IT could improve
  products/services while lowering costs
• Also respond to and evaluate proposals from
  others that meet these criteria
• Develop good working relationships with trusted
  technology experts
• Partners not support roles
• Mutual education

4
Emerging Technologies

• Investigate some new technologies
• In context of making effective general management
  decisions
• Web services receiving a lot of attention over
  the past couple years
• Many companies racing to deploy
• Lots of acronyms XML, SOAP,
• Software platforms such as J2EE and .net
• Pre-existing Web services
• Business risks and benefits
• Deployment costs

5
What Web Services Are

• Definition of a Web service
• Paraphrased from W3C (w3.org)
• A software system, accessible via the Web, with
  interfaces described using XML, accessed by other
  software systems using XML-based messages
  conveyed by internet protocols

XML response
ServiceProvider
ServiceRequestor
IP Network
Request
6
Web Site vs. Web Service

• API (Application Programming Interface)
• To be used by other software not a person
• Separates the display/layout from content
• No need to change processing because layout
  changes!
• HTML for expressing display of content whereas
  XML for content only

HTML response
Client(Browser)
Network
Server
HTTP request
7
Business Case for Web Services

• Makes your business information accessible for
  others to use on their sites
• E.g., Fedex or UPS tracking information on
  e-commerce Web site
• Can be governed by terms of use and require
  authentication/authorization
• E.g., amazon.com only access their shipping info
• Enable your customers to place orders from their
  systems
• E.g., large (corporate) customers
• Supply chain integration

8
Risks of Web Services

• Making information accessible to those outside
  the firm
• Careful consideration of what access to provide
  and to/from whom
• Appropriate authentication and authorization
  policies and implementations
• Maturity of underlying technology
• Risks of failure or errors in what become
  critical systems
• Not acting and having your competitors provide
  better services

9
Some Web Services Offerings
10
Ebay Web Services

• Automation of
• Listing items
• Monitoring auctions
• Searching
• Feedback

11
Not a Specific Technology

• Web services simply refers to an architecture in
  which
• Software systems communicate directly
• Communication uses XML-based messages over
  internet protocols
• Can use regular HTTP (Web) server such as Apache
• Does not require
• Use of higher level standards such as SOAP and
  WSDL
• Use of particular implementations such as J2EE or
  .net

12
XML

• Simple, extensible text format for exchange of
  data
• Intended to enable good description of data
• More of a framework than actual format
• Needs to have tags defined by a schema
• Extremely valuable for replacing many
  non-standard data exchange formats
• Standard parsers convert text to
  computer-accessible format
• A simple idea that can make data interchange work
  better but not rocket science

13
Basic XML Example

• A simple personnel record, with name, address,
  employee number, salary
• Fields must be defined in a schema

ltemployeegtltnamegtltfirstgtJanelt/firstgtltlastgtDoelt/las
tgtlt/namegtltaddressgtltnumbergt14lt/numbergtltstreetgtMai
n Streetlt/streetgtltcitygtIthacalt/citygtltstategtNYlt/st
ategtltzipgt14850lt/zipgtlt/addressgtltid_numbergt142996
lt/id_numbergtltsalarygt72,000lt/salarygtlt/employeegt
14
What XML Gets You

• Great both systems use XML format
• Analogy knowing the same language (grammar,
  etc.) saves a lot!
• Still need to know how the systems communicate
• E.g., using HTTP, SOAP over IIOP, etc.
• Analogy on the phone, internet, in person, etc.
• Still need to know the vocabulary
• Provided by Schema, but need to know how to use
  the resulting data
• Analogy meaning of special-purpose terms

15
Full Web Services Architecture
DiscoveryAgency
Publish(UDDI/WSDL)
Find(UDDI/WSDL)
IP Network
ServiceProvider
ServiceRequestor
Interaction(Using SOAP)
16
Full Web Services Stack

• Layers involved in full Web services architecture
• Note the business issues from a general IT
  architectural perspective

17
SOAP

• An XML-based means of describing communication
  between systems
• Works with various network protocols
• E.g., HTTP, SMTP, FTP, RMI/IIOP or proprietary
  messaging protocols such as MQSeries
• SOAP intended to standardize description of what
  is in a message sent between systems
• Can simply use network protocols directly but not
  self describing
• Hype often ahead of value with SOAP
• More variation in data than in message format so
  more important to use XML for data itself

18
WSDL/UDDI

• XML-based means of describing and discovering Web
  services
• Part of the Web services architecture is that
  there should be service directories
• Services and descriptions can be looked up
• E.g., find me a package delivery service
• Description involves how to access service and
  what messages can be sent
• Powerful vision, but still actively evolving
• Today known which systems will interact with one
  another not highly dynamic

19
Web Services Software

• Two application development frameworks make
  easier to deploy Web services
• J2EE from Sun, based on Java
• Also supported by IBM, Oracle and BEA
• Proprietary extensions from each vendor
• .net from Microsoft, based on CLR
• CLR common language runtime
• Language independent but primarily new language
  C and Visual Basic
• Wide adoption in Microsoft developer community
• In practice, many are using both

20
Recent Study

• Gartner survey from September 02
• 44 consulting and systems integration firms
• Reported in Information Week, 2/5/03
• Top 3 platforms targeting for Web services
• 58 .net
• 40 IBM WebSphere (J2EE)
• 31 Oracle (J2EE)
• Sun fourth place
• Survey of 140 companies similar results
• Smaller companies more likely to use .net
• Larger more likely to use J2EE or both

21
Whats Meant by Web Services

• Most companies still using Web services within
  the enterprise
• Some starting to offer services to outsiders
• Beyond technology leaders like FedEx, Google,
  Amazon, Ebay
• Generally using XML for inter-system
  communication over HTTP
• Usage of SOAP and WSDL still low
• In Feb. 2002 was miniscule
• Currently around 20 report using at least one

22
Full Web Services Architecture
DiscoveryAgency
Publish(Using WSDL)
Find(Using WSDL)
IP Network
ServiceProvider
ServiceRequestor
Interaction(Using SOAP)
23
Todays Web Services Architecture
IP Network
ServiceProvider
ServiceRequestor
Interaction(Using XML over HTTP)
24
Management Decisions

• Vendors and platforms
• Unix/Java or Microsoft shop (often both)
• J2EE or .net (or both)
• Currently using
• Other trends driving these choices within firm
• What are potential customers using and how much
  influence over their choices
• Or compatibility across vendors
• How far up the Web services stack
• Is minimum for the business purpose
• Is desirable for future compatibility