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Business PerspectiveSOA: Redrawing the Business Processes Security doesn't get enough attention in SOA warns Dennis Gaughan senior analyst at AMR Research. Early efforts tend to focus on defining service and messaging interfaces or on separating business and data logic from each other and from execution and presentation. But as services become widely used and adopted retrofitting them to accommodate access control and authorization becomes very difficult. Ask anyone in charge of constructing an SOA (service-oriented architecture) and they'll tell you that the hardest part isn't the technology; it's redrawing the business processes that provide the basis for the architecture -- and the often contentious reshuffling of roles and responsibilities that ensues. more > More SOA More Outsourcing? Will SOA increase or decrease the demand for outsourcing? I've been going back and forth for some time on this question. In my last post I quoted Forrester's Ken Vollmer who sees outsourcing diminishing as a result of SOA since there will be less of the grunt work typically outsourced to save labor costs — particularly heads-down coding. Sanjay Kalra saw my post and offers some additional insights on this question. He agrees that SOA — as it becomes embedded into business process management will reduce some of the grunt work aspects of the outsourcing business. However he agrees that SOA will create more work for outsourcers than it takes away. more > India Set to be the Fastest Growing SOA Market in Asia Awareness in India is generally higher than other countries New Delhi and Singapore Springboard Research a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry today announced that its research is showing that the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) market in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49% from 2006-2009 making it the fastest growing market in the region. Indian companies have one of the highest awareness levels of SOA and its benefits in the region. However despite a much higher awareness of SOA in India the number of companies planning to deploy SOA is less than that in China where the awareness is much lower said Ravi Shekhar Pandey Senior Analyst at Springboard Research. It is not surprising that India’s pools of IT literate professionals understand the latest technologies in the market such as SOA. more > SOA Changes Run Deep The emphasis on total quality becomes absolutely critical as SOA reshapes how IT works. Welcome to the first SOA Advisor column where I'll take a monthly look at the implications of Service-Oriented Architectures in the enterprise in the development process and in the way IT organizations actually behave. As an observer of enterprise application and deployment strategies for more than 10 years one thing remains common: It's very difficult to get people to change the way they think and work. The notion of herding cats comes to mind. For example there's the challenge of relating the concerns of far-flung operations teams to those defining services requirements and writing code. Another high hurdle: managing quality assurance across dispersed development teams that are often working for different contractors. more > Cost Savings and Business Agility Drive SOA Adoption Globally According to New BEA Sponsored Resear International Survey of Decision Makers Identifies C-level Sponsors for SOA Vision BEA Systems Inc. a world leader in enterprise infrastructure today announced the results of a cost and benefits survey of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) decision makers which found that SOA is quickly evolving from pilot or departmental projects to enterprise-wide initiatives driven by chief information officers (CIOs). Nearly 50 percent of those surveyed have spent over $1 million to date on SOA explaining why CIOs are increasingly the main sponsors of the strategy. The survey sponsored by BEA and conducted by independent research firm GCR Custom Research also cited IT cost savings as a leading driver in Europe as opposed to the need for greater business agility as the main driver in North America. Globally organizations were shown to expect IT cost savings of approximately 20 percent over the first 12 months of SOA adoption. The research also suggested a serious commitment to training and skills development investments to meet the need for SOA expertise within organizations. more > The business case for Microsoft Windows Vista Windows Vista is the most anticipated operating system release in Microsoft's history and it's the most important release for Microsoft since Windows 95. Originally slated for release in late 2003 Vista's development has been stalled nearly scrapped restarted delayed numerous times and endured very public criticism over dropped features. As Vista finally nears its official release many people still wonder if Vista is more than just a flashy update to Windows XP. In order for businesses to invest the time and effort to migrate to Vista the improvements in functionality productivity security and manageability have to outweigh the deployment costs. This article will examine the business case for migrating to Microsoft Windows Vista focusing on the feature sets within Windows Vista Business and Enterprise Editions. Two more articles will follow later focusing on the drawbacks to migrating to Vista and the factors IT managers need to consider before making the final decision. more > Integrating Information with SOA Service Oriented Architecture is being promoted in the industry as the next evolutionary step in software architecture to help IT organisations interlink different systems to meet their business goals. Faiz Askari reports With the enormous growth of IT applications in business environments integrating them has become a critical consideration for the average Indian CIO and is a subject that rarely strays from the top of his mind. Most business applications run on complex software solutions and the level of complexity continues to increase. Traditional architectures seem to be reaching the limit of their capability in terms of dealing with this particular problem. Several computing architectures have been deployed over the years. These have been designed to support distributed processing. While J2EE runs across platforms most other architectures are tied to a particular platform. This is the reason why Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is being promoted as the next evolutionary step in software architecture to help organisations face up to their increasingly complex challenges. more > Service-Oriented Architecture helps financial institutions become more nimble in responding to marke The piecemeal development of banking systems over the last 30 years has left many banks with a combination of technologies that are at best difficult to integrate or at worst nearly impossible to change quickly enough to maintain competitive edge. New research from TowerGroup finds that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is poised to deliver the near-seamless integration of business functionality retail banks have been seeking to respond more nimbly to market opportunities and pressures. According to TowerGroup SOA can be viewed as the coordinated use of new and existing technologies to increase the reusability of business components and processes. This would speed up development of new applications and products decrease maintenance costs and more efficiently leverage legacy systems. A timeline illustrating how past and present technology paradigms have intersected to enable the use of an SOA strategy can be downloaded at: http://www.towergroup.com/research/content/page.jsp?pageId= 802 more > The role of transformation services in SOA As organizations move forward with their service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementation plans they often find themselves grappling with significant long-lived problems of data and semantic integration among a wide variety of data sources. The mismatch between the data representation that one application provides and the data representation that another application expects forms the core of this long-lived problem. This data integration problem is particularly troublesome for SOA implementations because it limits the loose coupling between service providers and consumers unless there is an effective way to decouple the provider and consumer's data representations. more > Improve SOA Sales by Educating Users Life has never been easier for IT departments: these days business processes can be automated with ease by linking together applications via Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). All the old complexities of integrating legacy applications new technologies and external entities have disappeared with the SOA revolution and IT managers can really focus on delivering the value to the businesses that is expected of them. Or so you might be led to believe. The reality is of course rather different and messages about SOA are most likely to fall on deaf ears. While most of the few organisations that have managed to turn their IT infrastructure into a service-orientated one have no doubt about the value of having done so the majority still need educating about the fundamentals. VARs pushing their customers to evolve towards SOA will need to be in the front line helping to communicate this. more > TCS Has the Clearest Approach to SOA Says Forrester Forrester an independent research firm has cited TCS as a Strong Performer in its September 18 2006 report titled 'The Forrester Wave: North America SOA Integration Q3 2006'. Forrester interviewed nine service providers and gathered information from their firms'... more > Can SOA pick up where ERP leaves off? Last month I ran a piece that generated a lot of discussion quoting Bruce Richardson's prediction that SOA would usurp many of the functions that now sit at the application level in ERP systems. Sometimes ERP may seem like too much but other times believe it or not it's not enough. Recently I had the chance to talk with Rich Colton application integration manager with Washington Group International who has spent a good part of his career around ERP systems. (A summary of the interview and Washington's SOA effort is posted over at my blog at ebizQ which presents SOA success stories.) The interesting thing about the SOA effort at Washington Group — a construction management company — is that there really wasn't a single ERP system that could handle the firm's wide range of projects and needs. The company does everything from building dams and bridges to demilitarizing weapons stockpiles. Washington has an array of legacy systems and silos resulting from mergers and even the big systems such as SAP and Oracle had all the capabilities that were needed. more > BEA aims for 360° view of SOAs Middleware specialist announces new products and services at user event Middleware specialist BEA Systems continued its transformation into a provider of service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies last week with the unveiling of a number of new products and services at its BEAWorld user event in San Francisco. At the centre of its announcements was the introduction of SOA 360° a new unified SOA platform that the company said would work across its Tuxedo WebLogic and AquaLogic middleware suites and make it easier for firms to deploy and manage SOA environments that simplify the integration and reuse of application components or services. more > BEA Unveils SOA Governance Tool BEA is scheduled to unveil a new governance tool that will allow developers and managers to track the development and effectiveness of services in a service oriented architecture (SOA). The company plans to launch the new product today at the BEA World conference in San Francisco. The forthcoming Workspace 360 software will ship with several pre-configured roles for specific groups of end users such as business analysts developers IT operations and application architects exposing each group to the data that they require. more > HP Invests $500 Million in SOA HP unveiled three facilities in Cupertino Calif. Singapore and Bangalore India as part of a $500 million investment to deliver world-class service-oriented architecture (SOA) to enterprise customers. Introduced at the HP Technology Forum the three HP SOA Competency Centers are comprehensive experience centers enabling HP its customers and its partners to pilot and evaluate SOA technologies solutions and implementations. The centers will also showcase HP's capabilities in IT architecture management security and governance. SOA is an approach to delivering IT services in a secure and manageable way that uses loosely connected reusable and standards-based technology that can be quickly aligned to changing business needs. more > Juniper CEO Sees SOA As IT Spending Driver Juniper Networks Chairman and CEO Scott Kriens on Tuesday heralded service-oriented architecture (SOA) as the next big thing to drive IT spending. We've got all of these applications out there and what we really would like to do is tie them together. When you do that you get online real-time enterprises Kriens said in a keynote address at Interop New York 2006 > held by CMP Technology the publisher of CRN. Kriens cited research from The Yankee Group that projects SOA-related spending to hit $11 billion by 2010. more > Software AG suite takes on SOA The basic goal of an SOA is to make resources available on a network in such a way that the resources are accessible by client applications without the applications having to resort to low-level (language- or platform-specific) APIs. The resources often have processing capabilities and are therefore referred to as services. In that sense accessing a service looks a lot like making a very elaborate remote procedure call. Enterprisewide broadly available and easily extensible services -the Holy Grail of SOA - is the goal to which Software AG's crossvision suite aspires. The suite is a collection of services tools and components held lightly together by CentraSite a sort of combination application server management system and repository. more > The Dark Side Of SOA Often criticised for their services-skew and lack of product revenues Indian software companies are now making a mark globally with their core banking products. Apart from I-flex Solutions acquired by the world's second largest software firm Oracle for its Flexcube suite of products Infosys Technologies India's second largest software firm is also making its presence felt in the core-banking products space. The Indian vendors have been identified as the top performers in a recent analysis of core banking systems by the US-based research firm Celent. more > Success Stories from the Age of Legacy Integration It’s a challenge to bring the mainframe into the modern age of service-oriented architecture but there’s a huge payoff once the job is done. When Applications Manager Roger Lanka of FirstMerit Bank and his client/server development team opted for DataDirect’s Shadow zServices they were simply looking to speed response times on their customer site. Shadow zServices provides a bi-directional channel between mainframe data and Web services so developers are able work from mainframe screens in the languages they’re already familiar with. more > Pouring cold water on SOA 'reuse' mantra Is reuse an idea that's too good to be true? The idea of build once use often has a lot of appeal for enterprises and as discussed many times in this blogspace the first and foremost return on investment to be gained from SOA.
There has been a lot of buzz and money flowing into governance and registry/repository technologies as of late all premised on the idea that reuse (and I should add sharing) would soon be the way of enterprise solutions.
However David Chappell (the .NET guru David Chappell < AG: Leveraging SOA to Deliver Business Goals Part 1 (of 3) http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=214200 http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=214602 Dynamic global markets higher customer expectations and changing compliance requirements continue to place new demands and opportunities on your organization. In fact most organizations are hard-pressed to react quickly to these constantly changing business conditions. In order to take advantage of these opportunities your organization may be compelled to implement one or more of these enterprise strategies: * Expand or globalize and integrate acquired businesses quickly * Form alliances and partnerships and rapidly synchronize activities * Accelerate time to market for new products and services Annabel Kirk Brands2Life 1 Warwick Row London SW1E 5ER Tel +44 (0)20 7592 1200 Fax +44 (0)20 7592 1201 www.brands2life.com PR Consultancy of the Year - CIPR Excellence Awards - 2005 UK Consultancy of the Year - Holmes Report European Report Card - 2005 PR Firm of the Year - UK Technology Innovation and Growth Awards - 2005 Marketing Communications: Business Award - PR Week Awards - 2005 more > SOA: Who will benefit? Silicon Valley is crazy about its catch phrases. And when it comes to software there are plenty to throw around from tipping points to paradigm shifts to game changers. The thing about those terms and the undercurrents they describe is that they don't benefit the software vendors or the investors. It's always another set of companies higher up the food chain that figures out how to better capitalize on new technology. And even so it's often only a temporary win. Eventually new predators come along and figure out how to gain an even bigger advantage. We're seeing this played out now in the business-software market. The next game changer in the industry is what's known as service-oriented architectures (SOA). Companies such as SAP and Oracle are pouring billions of dollars into creating such platforms. more > U.S. businesses struggle with SOA complexity Businesses are struggling to cope with the complexity of implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) according to a new study by analyst firm Ovum. Ovum's survey of 333 U.S. IT decision-makers found that 27 percent of large enterprises and 17 percent of medium-sized companies have SOA operationally deployed in at least some areas of the IT infrastructure. more > Measuring SOA Performance Is a Complex Art As companies become increasingly reliant on service-oriented architectures to support mission-critical transactions monitoring the performance of Web services -- which can be more complex than traditional system monitoring -- is quickly becoming an IT priority. The nature of an SOA -- multiple loosely coupled services interacting to link applications or perform a business process -- is prompting some companies to create a strategy that separates management of SOA systems from IT systems management to ensure that services are continuously available. Andres Carvallo CIO at Austin Energy in Texas said a key challenge for IT is to measure the uptime and performance of this new type of application. more > SOA generates savings for hydroelectric company in China For Ertan Hydropower Development Company Ltd. (EHDC) which builds and operates electric generating dams along the Yalong River in Sichuan Province of China. service-oriented architecture may be a life saver literally. Before an SOA implementation began providing data for decision making company managers spent half their time traveling up and down the almost 1 000 mile length of the Yalong River through the mountainous southwest China. These journeys were not only time consuming and expensive but also dangerous especially during times of the year when the river is in flood. Harrowing as these trips were they were the only way managers could check on the status of the construction of 20 hydro electric power plants EHDC is building in a 15-year project to support China's growing economy explained Charney Hoffman. He is a senior architect for Cordys a Netherlands-based software provider which led a three-year SOA implementation for EHDC. more > SOA Adoption at 90 Percent?! Well we should all rest easy now that the work is completed with SOA right? What's that? Well according to a new report from the Aberdeen Group nine of every 10 companies are adopting or have adopted service-oriented architectures and will exit 2006 with SOA planning design and programming experience. The report based on an Aberdeen benchmark survey of more than 120 IT and business professionals indicates a growing and widespread acceptance of SOA technology especially among large enterprises (at least US$1 billion in annual revenue). more > Saving Expense Through SOA Rollouts A central advantage to SOA is understandable to everyone: It can save money. That might come in the form of reduced training because I.T. doesn't have to be retrained on new applications as well as greater efficiencies and lower programming costs. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a current technology rage. Its goal is to make I.T. integration faster more effective and cheaper while using existing tools. If you hear the letters SOA ' and think somebody is spelling soap odds are that you're in finance and not information technology. SOA or service-oriented architecture is one of the hottest buzzwords in I.T. today and it's been gaining traction steadily as an open industry standard that vendors are anxious to incorporate into their applications. It's an integration framework that offers a series of benefits: It helps applications talk to each other; it simplifies integration of disparate systems after a merger; and it saves (or even eliminates) a lot of programming time and costs. more > Sun Betas Aim to Simplify Java Development Web Services Sun Microsystems has announced the release of preview versions of the Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5 software development kit and the NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Software. Sun announced beta versions of these technologies on Feb. 21 saying these offerings feature technologies that provide developers with the next-generation Java platform and tools for building and deploying Web services and SOA (service-oriented architecture) applications. Moreover the new betas feature contributions from the open-source GlassFish Project and NetBeans communities the company said. And the news comes on the heels of several recent developer-oriented announcements Sun has made including the launches of NetBeans 5.0 Java Studio Creator 2 Java Standard Edition 6 (aka Project Mustang) Java Studio Enterprise 8 and Sun Studio 11—all of which are also now available at no cost to developers the company said. Graham Hamilton a vice president and fellow on the Java platform team at Sun based in Santa Clara Calif. said the Java EE Platform 5 is a major revamp of the enterprise developer programming model that radically simplifies Java EE development especially for Web services and transactional components. more > HBA leads with 'pseudo' Web services Despite having to deal with legacy applications for claims processing health insurer HBA has taken a leading position with open information interchange in line with the Health Insurance Commission's (HIC) specifications according to CIO Peter Powell. After separating from AXA three years ago HBA has established its own core backend system and successfully migrated it from a mainframe to Oracle on Sun. In parallel with that transformation Powell said HBA has taken a leading position developing software for HIC's Eclipse project which will allow better access to data between hospitals and insurers. We worked with HIC to do the first round of testing [which] covered claims submitted by providers and enquiries to validate the member Powell said adding that since Eclipse went live in 2004 HBA has processed 45 percent of all claims made through HIC. more > Creative Differences Just because marketing departments and IS departments traditionally behave like oil and water doesn't mean that the two functions can't coexist . . . in a perfect world. Way back in the mists of time The IT shop discovered the Internet and realizing developing Web sites took next-to-no effort began doing so with gusto. All was rosy until some time down the track the marketing people caught on to what IT was up to. Horrified to learn the IT folk had been representing the company to the world marketing then seized control of the Web site and - brooking no argument - began issuing memos and directives insistently asserting ownership. An uneasy peace reigned until the marketing folk began to realize savvy Internet users would not stand for Web pages that merely mirrored printed brochures. Forced to accept they could not turn the Web into an interactive medium on their lonesome marketing turned to IT for help. Thus the Internet forced a meeting of the minds between two arms of the organization whose paths previously had rarely crossed. The CIO who back then most often reported up the chain through operations or finance and the marketing director who typically reported to the president or CEO suddenly found reasons to work together. more > IONA and Satyam Computer Services Partner on SOA Web Services Partnership Enables Customers to Realize the Performance Advantages of Service Oriented Architecture. IONA Technologies a world leader in high-performance integration solutions for mission-critical IT environments and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. a leading global consulting and IT services company have announced the two companies have entered into a wide-ranging technology marketing and sales agreement. In the initial stages of the partnership IONA and Satyam will engage in joint sales and marketing activities with the intent of identifying projects where Web services-based integration can be used to bring together disparate systems and deliver powerful Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) deployments to its customers. Satyam has identified Artix IONA's extensible Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) as a robust ESB foundation to support some of the SOA projects for customers in its Enterprise Integration practice. The intention for both organizations is to broaden the scope of the relationship across various vertical markets such as banking and financial services government healthcare insurance and in particular telecommunications. more > Compuware Affirms Support for .Net; The company plans to release applications with increased support Compuware Corp. affirmed its commitment to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and the .Net platform by announcing plans Thursday to increase support for the Microsoft Visual Studio suite of development tools. At the company's OJ.X developer conference here Bob Barker vice president of strategic planning for technology said Compuware will continue to deliver products that support the Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Team System development experience. In addition Compuware will provide expertise and best practices on top of its products aimed at helping IT organizations develop test manage and govern applications for the Windows platform. Compuware is a founding board member of the Microsoft VSIP (Visual Studio Industry Partner) Program and will be a gold sponsor of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 launch tour which kicks off on Nov. 7 in San Francisco. Rick LaPlante general manager of Visual Studio 2005 Team System at Microsoft said Compuware will be participating in demonstrations at the launch event. At the event the company will demonstrate an upcoming release of Compuware TestPartner with functional and regression testing capabilities integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Compuware officials said. more > IBM Finally Gets on Board Service Bus: WebSphere to include new services integration and messaging After years of providing high-end messaging solutions IBM last month announced that it would begin to ride the bus. A host of new additions to its WebSphere product line including a lightweight enterprise service bus and an Eclipse-based service-oriented architecture development tool known as WebSphere Integration Developer marks the company’s expanded SOA platform. IBM also announced a wider partnership program for its SOA offerings a new WebSphere Process Server the WebSphere Business Modeler and the WebSphere Business Monitor. In addition the company said it will release an updated version of its WebSphere Message Broker. “If a customer is looking at Web services they’re quickly finding out that putting Web services interfaces on all 10 of their applications isn’t enough ” said Kloud in an interview. “There’s a multiplier effect on how they’d like to integrate those 10 interfaces. By putting an ESB in front of those interfaces you take a lot of complexity out of those services. If you have one interface that asks for ‘last name first name ’ and another that asks for ‘first name last name ’ you can do some simple XML translation to that message while it is in the ESB to take care of that.” more > Net Fraud In Over-50 Bracket On Rise: American seniors reported losing $152 million to scams a Fede American seniors reported losing $152 million to scams a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) official told Congress on Wednesday with the biggest chunk hijacked by Internet fraudsters. Net fraud is growing quickly in the over-50 age bracket said Lois Greisman of the FTC’s consumer protection division in testimony before the Senate Committee on Aging. In 2002 Internet scams accounted for just 33 percent of all claims by those over 50 said Greisman while in 2004 they added up to 41 percent of all reports. more > IBM Sharpens Its Focus On Services Business: Global Services unit is getting a makeover with chief's IBM's become even more dependent on its services business now that it has sold its PC operations. However the company won't stray too far from its computer hardware and software roots--it's acquiring an electronic-forms developer and this week will introduce its latest big-iron mainframe. Three executives will take Joyce's place. IBM Global Services which accounts for half of the company's revenue posted disappointing results in its first quarter. But it rebounded strongly in the quarter ended June 30. The unit's revenue in the period in constant currency increased 4% year over year to $12 billion. Though the increase was modest the results revealed a number of positive trends: New contract signings increased 45% to $15.5 billion and the company signed 18 services deals larger than $100 million. more > XML at 'wire-speed' Bloor has continuously stressed the importance of XML. It narrows the gap between business and IT; it simplifies new development and greatly enhances the ability to integrate heterogeneous systems. Although we implicitly knew this to be true it is always nice to find data to support our views. A recent survey by Resolution Market Research reconfirmed our views by its findings which include: o Web Services are being deployed in the Datacenter for business-critical applications such as standards compliance legacy systems integration supply-chain and ERP. o As enterprises deploy Web Services into mainstream production environments application performance has emerged as a key architectural concern on customer's minds. Most customers are addressing this problem by adding to server infrastructure and continually tuning software applications. o It is clear that XML and Web Services developer skills are a prized commodity. Outsourcing and packaged software have been partial solutions for the majority of respondents. more > It's Time for Web Services That Are Useable Attachmate Says Up to this point Web services have been talked about in terms of how they can technically connect different systems and architectures. But what's missing from this debate according to Attachmate is how end users themselves can benefit from Web services technology. Making it easier for employees who aren't technologically sophisticated to make and reuse composite applications in a services oriented architecture (SOA) is the focus of Attachmate's new Synapta product strategy which it officially unveiled for the first time yesterday. more > Web Services Spread Slowly Into IT Dade County Fla. has more than 40 Web services in production that are used to integrate data to build citizen-facing applications like those for online fee payment and access to building-inspection reports. In November Dade County rolled out the first release of a call center application built to provide answers to common questions through Web services interfaces to criminal justice waste management and public works back-end systems said Carmen Suarez systems support manager at the county's enterprise technology services department. more > IBM Global Services unveils SOA Management Practice There's no trend in enterprise computing with more potential to achieve an actual paradigm shift than the advent of service-oriented architectures (SOA). The idea of making IT functionality available as discoverable services on a network allows for so much more flexibility than traditional system architectures that many companies are now well into the design phase of an SOA. That's a challenge IBM Global Services is taking on with a newly created practice aimed at helping enterprises migrate to service-oriented architectures. Unveiled this week Big Blue's new SOA Management Practice will seek to help customers with Web services management capabilities as they scale to enterprise-wide SOAs. more > Waiting for Web Services Of course XML and Web services offer a means to achieve integration across the enterprise. However fragmented industry efforts still need to be brought together before Web services is a force according to some industry experts. The greatest barrier to that reality now is the Web services standards not supporting a number of protocols that we're all used to in the database world according to Tyson Hartman technology fellow with Avanade. more > Strike up the band According to a report issued by Sandra Rogers research director for Web Services Software Service at IDC vendors and technologies that have historically tackled different areas of application development integration and deployment environments are now converging to address what she sees as an emerging opportunity: Web services orchestration requirements. Orchestration involves a development and deployment methodology that abstracts business processes from specific application logic and data sources. It enables the assembly of software components and the specification of rules governing their interaction to execute business processes and workflows. more > Starwood Hotels Moves To Web Services Switches Outsourcers For nearly four years Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has been converting its IT environment to a services-oriented architecture while the hotelier's core centralized reservation system remained a legacy mainframe-based application. Gateways sitting in front of the mainframe would translate the older COBOL data for use in Web services so it could be called by the newer more nimble applications around it. Those problems should soon be a thing of the past. more > Microsoft Says No to Liberty Alliance Despite news that a key ally in the Web services standards space has decided to join the Liberty Alliance an identity management group working to define standards around federated identity and Web services Microsoft said it will not be following suit. Microsoft has no plans to join Liberty a company representative said. IBM on Wednesday announced its membership in the Liberty Alliance a significant move in that IBM and Microsoft Corp. set out with competing specifications for federated identity—including the WS-Federation and Microsoft's Passport—while Sun Microsystems Inc. proposed the Liberty specifications. more > Systinet CEO: Three phases for web services Thomas Erickson recently took over as president and CEO of Systinet one of a growing number of companies focused on the web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) management spaces. Prior to joining Systinet Erickson served as an executive vice-president at webMethods and also held executive positions at Baan Filenet/Watermark Software and MRO Software. Among Systinet’s products is Systinet Registry a Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI)-compliant registry for SOAs. Earlier this month Erickson met with InfoWorld's staff to discuss his views on the phases of web services web services standardisation and alliances with other suppliers. more > WS-Management’s success depends on wide deep vendor support Microsoft is pushing a new version of its Web Services for Management Extension (WMX) standard. But more work and industry support will be needed before WS-Management can help you manage web services. more > Systinet CEO sees three phases for Web services Thomas Erickson recently took over as president and CEO of Systinet one of a growing number of companies focused on the Web services and SOA (service-oriented architecture) management spaces. Prior to joining Systinet Erickson served as an executive vice president at webMethods and also held executive positions at Baan Filenet/Watermark Software and MRO Software. Among Systinet’s products is Systinet Registry a UDDI-compliant registry for SOAs. Earlier this month Erickson met with InfoWorld's Editor in Chief Steve Fox Test Center Executive Editor Doug Dineley Executive Editor at Large Eric Knorr and Editor at Large Paul Krill to discuss his views on the phases of Web services Web services standardization and alliances with other vendors. more > IBM Joins Liberty Alliance IBM Wednesday announced that it has joined the Liberty Alliance the identity management group working to define standards around federated identity and Web services. The news is significant in that IBM and Microsoft Corp. set out with competing specifications for federated identity—including the WS-Federation and Microsoft's Passport—while Sun Microsystems Inc. proposed the Liberty specifications. However now IBM is not only a Liberty member but also a board member company officials said. more > Web service spec aims to aid IT management Microsoft Dell Intel AMD and Sun have developed a web services specification for simplifying IT management. Missing from the line-up is IBM which is working on its own web services management framework. The supporters of Web Services Management (WS-Management) said the specification will enable IT managers to remotely access devices on their networks regardless of whether the systems are just out of the box powered down or otherwise unavailable. The specification covers management of silicon components and handheld devices to PCs servers and large-scale datacentres. more > Friendlier Faces For Business Applications Rich-client interfaces let Web apps function more like desktop software. Web applications are typically presented as a series of HTML pages with one limited thing happening per page. Doing something simple such as buying a book can take seven or eight screens. To get Web applications to function more like software on a desktop companies have started embracing a new class of user-interface technology that emerged over the last two years called rich clients. They can be built atop a Web application and combine many of its functions onto a single page. Initially aimed at consumers these rich clients are finding their way inside companies opening the door to easier-to-use more powerful applications. more > Web Services: Companies move beyond tire-kicking It's time to stop thinking of Web services as emerging technologies say industry watchers at the Yankee Group. The Boston-based analysts recently surveyed 437 enterprise IT decision makers on their Web services plans. They found 48% of those surveyed already have deployed Web services with 39% planning to in 2005. By this time next year Yankee predicts 77% of enterprises will have deployed Web services. The survey results show Web services have passed their tests and enterprises are gearing up for higher spending on Web services across all business processes. The majority of those surveyed are using Web services projects to move toward a service-oriented architecture Yankee found. more > Vendor group publishes new Web services management spec A group of technology vendors that includes AMD Dell Intel Microsoft and Sun Microsystems last week published a new Web services specification designed to simplify network administration across a range of devices. Dubbed Web Services Management (WS-M) the spec describes how to use Web services as a remote management access protocol. By using Web services to manage IT systems deployments that support WS-Management will enable IT managers to remotely access devices on their networks regardless of whether the systems are just out of the box powered down or otherwise unavailable the companies say in a joint statement. more > Software's Next Step Services-oriented architectures are being embraced by business-technology specialists charged with creating more-efficient IT infrastructures. Services-oriented architectures promise IT efficiency and flexibility in the form of reusable software services. The concept a few years in making is hitting the mainstream now that commercial support for Web services is widespread. Yet the approach requires planning and know-how--services-oriented architectures are custom built not bought. IT departments assemble them using a combination of development tools XML-messaging middleware other software standards and management products. In the process older applications may need to be reformatted for the services model. more > Scalable: Managing Web Services Demands New Approach Depending on how they're crafted software services can scale up to meet demanding business requirements or fail to meet that most important test of performance. The trick is in managing them well. You need to be able to say where the services are and know how to manage them says Toby Redshaw corporate VP of IT strategy architecture at Motorola which is two years into building a services-oriented architecture. Motorola is using AmberPoint Inc.'s Management Foundation product to monitor the performance level of its Web services and Systinet Corp.'s Registry a Yellow Pages-like directory of Web services based on the Universal Description Discovery and Integration standard. more > Industry Leaders Pitch Web-Services-Based Systems Management Microsoft Sun Microsystems Intel AMD and Dell today announced the publication of Web Services Management (WS-Management) a Web services specification that provides a common way for disparate computer systems to communicate. By leveraging WS-Management the vendors said IT managers will be able to remotely access a wide range of devices on their networks everything from mobile phones to PCs to large-scale data centers. With this specification management is now a core part of the Web services world and no longer an afterthought or just something that takes place in the data center said David Mendlen director of Web services at Microsoft. This is an important step for IT managers who have been looking for management systems to fully take advantage of the inherent interoperability that Web services provide. more > IBM Releases DB2 Information Integrator IBM has released the DB2 Information Integrator which includes search technology that will bring order to the often-jumbled data sources of corporate intranets company officials said. The latest version of the information integrator formerly code-named Masala will make it dramatically easier to access information of all different kinds whether it is in e-mail repositories or in databases or image libraries said Jeff Jones director of strategy for IBM's DB2 Universal Database. more > Microsoft open sources Web authoring application Continuing its flirtation with open source Microsoft (Profile Products Articles) Corp. on Monday posted the code of a little-known collaboration application to open-source development site SourceForge.net. Microsoft is sharing the source of FlexWiki a program for creating Web sites called wikis that allow users to add and edit content. It is Microsoft's third open-source code contribution but the first time the company is sharing code for an actual application said Jason Matusow director of Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative. more > PeopleSoft IBM strike middleware alliance PeopleSoft last week said it would work with IBM to optimize its applications for use with IBM's WebSphere middleware and development tools and will begin selling WebSphere products directly through its own salesforce. In expanding their alliance the two companies also said they would jointly develop software packages aimed at customers in three industries: financial services telecom and insurance. PeopleSoft and IBM already close partners have worked together on a number of development initiatives but PeopleSoft executives said this agreement is their most far-reaching. more > IBM PeopleSoft Outline Integration Road Map PeopleSoft Inc. and IBM are pounding out the details of the $1 billion alliance announced last week a deal that calls for joint development of composite applications as well as the integration of IBM's WebSphere middleware into PeopleSoft's applications. The alliance will enable PeopleSoft to finally claim its own infrastructure or composite application integration framework offering—something its competitors have been doing for quite some time. The framework will enable users to eventually model manage integrate and execute business processes using Web services. more > Cape Clear Neon in Web services deal Cape Clear Software and Neon Systems Inc. on Wednesday announced they are working together to integrate their respective technologies and allow users to quickly integrate mainframe applications and data through the use of Web services. Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will more tightly bind Cape Clear's Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) with Neon Systems' Shadow z/Services product. This will allow mainframe-based applications to be offered as services over a network more reliably and cost effectively according to officials from both companies. more > PeopleSoft Moves Ahead Unveiling Major IBM Alliance Joint work with IBM is part of strategy to deliver apps that let customers use Web services to build adaptable service-oriented architectures. One thing Craig Conway has no shortage of is resolve. The CEO of software vendor PeopleSoft Inc. kicked off the company's user conference in San Francisco by unveiling a hugely expanded relationship with IBM making it clear that while Oracle's relentless attempt to acquire his company shows no sign of slowing PeopleSoft is moving full-steam ahead. PeopleSoft is not slowing down and we are not changing our commitment to customers Conway said. more > WS-JustSayNo There's a whole group of specifications put out by an ever-changing (but usually including Microsoft or IBM) mix of industry partners that are designed to add new fetures to Web services. With names like WS-Addressing and WS-Security they're collectively called the WS-* specifications. You may not have noticed but a couple of new WS-* specifications came out lately: WS-Enumeration for getting items from a list of data held by a Web service and WS-Transfer for sending a small set of standard verbs over SOAP. more > Flexibility Finances Keys to Web Services Adoption Web services are one of IT's most promising advances but they have yet to enjoy their predicted widespread adoption. What's the holdup? Some say Web services lack the mature robust standards and security needed to support higher adoption rates. But standards and security play a small role in the delay if any at all. Current standards are sufficient to do most of the Web services work anybody wants to do. The security is adequate too. You can implement encryption authentication authorization and other security services today. more > Banking & Financial Services: IT Digs Deeper Into Financial Services The U.S. financial-services industry a prodigious consumer of business technology will spend about $60 billion on IT this year split evenly among banks securities firms and insurance companies. In an industry whose only tangible product is information IT is being called upon to supply more of it in support of new customer-service and revenue-producing opportunities. more > Recent writings of David Chappell in ADT David Chappell is principal at Chappell & Associates an education and consulting firm focused on enterprise software technologies including Microsoft .NET. He shares his insights regularly with readers of Application Development Trends and adtmag.com. Here is a sampling of recent writings. more > Linux Aims For The Desktop Security and pricing concerns are causing companies to consider alternatives to Windows but adoption of the open-source operating system has been slow Linux software has found lots of friends in IT departments and research labs that like its low price flexibility and crash-proof reputation. Now tech companies such as Novell Red Hat and Sun Microsystems are beginning to market those same virtues on the computer desktop where Microsoft's Windows has a virtual lock on sales. There's an open window of opportunity but few customers seem to have noticed the breeze. more > SmartAdvice: Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Is Ongoing So Prepare For Now And In Future Getting ready for Sarbanes-Oxley will test whether your company can meet the act's compliance guidelines for financial and IT controls The Advisory Council says. Also look for a general collaboration app when you decide to implement supply-chain forecasts; and use dashboard tools to manage outsourcing contracts for more control and greater ROI. more > Longhorn To Have More-Flexible Security Settings Longhorn will give companies more control over whether to prohibit devices that can easily transfer data to and from PCs. SEATTLE (AP) - For years programmers at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and elsewhere have worked to make it easier for devices like cell phones and personal digital assistants to work instantly and easily with computers. Now Microsoft is working to make it a little harder. more > Indian Outsourcer Complies With U.S. Security Laws Patni Computing Systems has instituted measures to strictly adhere to HIPAA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Mumbai India might seem to be a strange place to institute rigorous IT safeguards to comply with the tough provisions of the HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley acts but Indian outsourcing firm Patni Computing Systems has instituted measures to strictly adhere to those two U.S. security provisions. more > IBM Shows Off Next-Generation Collaboration Software Some of the new technology which emphasizes activity-management capabilities will be built into IBM's Workplace messaging and collaboration software and Eclipse development tools. IBM is developing next-generation collaboration software that goes beyond communications to emphasize activity-management capabilities. Some of the new technology which executives previewed Wednesday at IBM's Lotus division headquarters in Cambridge Mass. will be built into its Workplace messaging and collaboration software and Eclipse development tools. more > Unprecedented Security Network For Olympics Recent leaps in technology have paired highly sophisticated software with street surveillance cameras to create digital security guards with intelligence-gathering skills. ATHENS Greece (AP)--If you're planning on attending this month's Olympic Games you'd best be careful what you say and do in public. Software will be watching and listening. Recent leaps in technology have paired highly sophisticated software with street surveillance cameras to create digital security guards with intelligence-gathering skills. more > Vendors Form Group To Pitch E-Prescriptions A group of health IT vendors have joined together to help pitch doctors payers and retail pharmacies on the benefits of E-prescribing. With the goal of accelerating the adoption of electronic prescriptions a group of health IT vendors have joined together to help pitch doctors payers and retail pharmacies on the benefits of E-prescribing. more > Unprecedented Security Network For Olympics Recent leaps in technology have paired highly sophisticated software with street surveillance cameras to create digital security guards with intelligence-gathering skills. ATHENS Greece (AP)--If you're planning on attending this month's Olympic Games you'd best be careful what you say and do in public. Software will be watching and listening. Recent leaps in technology have paired highly sophisticated software with street surveillance cameras to create digital security guards with intelligence-gathering skills. more > EDS May Cut Up To 20 000 Jobs The IT services company may lay off as many as 20 000 from its global workforce of 125 000 in an effort to remain competitive with archrival IBM and low-cost offshore service providers. IT services provider EDS may cut up to 20 000 positions from its global workforce as the company looks to reduce costs EDS chairman and CEO Michael Jordan said at an investors conference Thursday in New York. Jordan has previously said that EDS needs to reduce operating costs by 20%--or $3 billion--over the next two years to remain competitive in its industry. The company has already cut about 5 000 positions in the past year from a workforce of 125 000. more > Web Services Leaders Submit Key Messaging Spec A group of leading Web services proponents including Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on Tuesday announced the joint submission of a key Web services specification to a major standards body. BEA Systems Inc. IBM Microsoft Corp. SAP AG and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced the submission of the latest version of the WS-Addressing specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) said Ed Julson director of Web services at Sun. more > Big First-Half Loss Roils Management At Capgemini The CFO resigns after the consulting firm loses $165 million during the first half of fiscal '04. IT-services firm Capgemini SA has replaced its CFO following a disappointing first half of 2004. The company named Nicolas Dufourcq as its new CFO replacing William Bitan. Capgemini says Bitan resigned to pursue personal interests. Dufourcq is a former CEO of French Internet service provider Wanadoo. more > We Must Beat Spyware As a major threat to the effective functioning of the Internet spyware must be confronted by both industry and the government. If worms and viruses weren't enough there's a new threat: spyware. This menace is defined as any software intended to aid an unauthorized person or entity in causing a computer—without the knowledge of the computer's user or owner—to divulge private data. more > Macromedia ColdFusion to Get Feature-Rich Upgrade Macromedia Inc. has released some more details on the next release of its ColdFusion Web application development and deployment platform code-named Blackstone. The San Francisco company said it will formally announce ColdFusion Blackstone later this year and the product will ship early next year with several new features including new support for rich forms printing and reporting. more > NYSE Aims At E-Trading Upgrade will require a significant investment in new software The New York Stock Exchange last week revealed plans to upgrade its Direct Plus electronic-trading system in an attempt to balance its dependence on floor traders with growing online trading volume. Currently only about 10% of NYSE trades are processed using Direct Plus. more > Business Technology: From Offshore Outsourcing To Global Competitiveness Plenty of myths half-truths and misconceptions still swirl around the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing so Optimize magazine will explore this idea next month with a special issue featuring subject-matter experts discussing how the larger idea is one of global competitiveness more > Keeping The Lights On Power utilities have spent millions on business technology in the hope that they can make last year's regional power outage the last of its kind. Here's what they've done so far and what still needs doing. With mild temperatures this summer in the Great Lakes region and east across New York state people's patience and air conditioners haven't been tested yet the way they were last year. More important neither have the improvements made to the electrical power grid since last summer when more than 50 million people across six states and parts of Canada were left in the dark by a cascading power outage. more > Windows XP Service Pack 2: The 10% Problem AssetMetrix an asset-monitoring service provider says its research shows XP Service Pack 2 will cause problems with about one in 10 PCs that use the operating system. Upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2 will cause problems with about one in every 10 PCs running the operating system according to research published Tuesday by a Canadian asset-monitoring service provider. more > Microsoft Aims To Take A Bite Out Of Apple's Online Music Business It's gearing up to launch its own Web site for selling songs over the Internet. SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. hoping to take a bite out of Apple Computer Inc.'s highly popular online music service is gearing up to launch its own Web site for selling songs over the Internet. With Thursday's planned debut the software maker will become the latest competitor in a market experts say is still in its infancy--but one that is expected to grow considerably more popular in the coming years. more > At 35 The Internet Remains A Work In Progress Rsearchers are experimenting with ways to make the Net faster and increase its capacity. NEW YORK (AP) -- Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable testing a new way for exchanging data over networks what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress. more > Microsoft: Next Version Of Windows In 2006 The company says it hopes to release the new version code-named Longhorn in the second half of 2006 but will not be ready to include a more advanced system for sorting storing and finding data. more > Turn To eBay To Sell Leftovers Many colleges are using the online auctioneer rather than live auctions to sell off unwanted items. STATE COLLEGE Pa. (AP) -- Surely there's someone out there who needs six factory-sealed 100-pound cans of freon. Officials at Penn State University just hope that someone is on eBay.http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=26805796Yahoo Goes Local InformationWeekBy Thomas ClaburnAugust 04 2004Categories: BIt released a beta version of Yahoo Local an expansion and refinement of the local search capabilities it has been pushing for the past few months. Yahoo this week released a beta version of Yahoo Local an expansion and refinement of the local search capabilities it has been pushing since March. Integrating the company's search technology with Yellow Pages map data and user-generated reviews the service aims improve the local search experience and to serve those looking for online alternatives to phone book business listings.http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=26805790Phishing Gets Political InformationWeekBy Antone Gonsalves TechWeb NewsAugust 04 2004Categories: BOnline scams purporting to solicit campaign contributions have already started.Phishing scammers have gone political message-filtering firm SurfControl said Wednesday. more > Mozilla Offers Rewards For Security Bugs The maker of the open-source Firefox Web browser will pay $500 to those who discover and report significant security bugs. The Mozilla Foundation makers of the Firefox Web browser this week unveiled a program aimed at squashing security bugs in its open-source software. more > Phishing Scams Just Keep Coming The Anti-Phishing Working Group says there were 1 422 unique new attacks in June up 19% from May. Phishing attacks were back up in June the Anti-Phishing Working Group said Tuesday as the scams that continue to plague users and steal millions from financial institutions climbed to all-time records. more > WebEx Extends Footprint To India The provider of Web conferencing services plans to use the country as a base for its back-office work. BANGALORE India (AP) -- Silicon Valley-based WebEx Communications provider of Web conferencing services has extended its network to India planning to tap the local market and use the South Asian country as a base for its back-office work more > Dow Hires IBM To Take VoIP Project Over From EDS Dow Chemical hires IBM under a seven-year $1.1 billion contract to create a voice data and video network for its 50 000 employees. Now it's IBM's turn to try to build a voice-over-Internet communications system for Dow Chemical. The manufacturer of chemical and plastics products has given IBM a seven-year $1.1 billion contract to create a combined voice data and video network for its worldwide operations. more > SAP To Add 1 900 Programmers In India The business-software vendor will invest another $24 million and add the programmers by the end of 2006. BANGALORE India (AP) -- SAP AG the world's largest business software company will invest $24 million and hire 1 900 software programmers in India by end 2006 CEO Henning Kagermann said Tuesday. more > Ridge Salutes Financial-Services Industry The Homeland Security secretary lauded the industry for its cooperation in standing up to the latest terrorist threat. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Tuesday praised financial-services companies for their cooperation with the government and with each other in responding to the latest elevated terrorist alert. more > SAP Grabs Siebel CRM Exec And Stands To Grab Market Lead Patrick Bakey is leaving to become senior VP of SAP's North American CRM unit. SAP's pursuit of Siebel Systems Inc.'s status as the market leader in customer-relationship-management software reached into its rival's executive ranks this week when Patrick Bakey left his post as VP of sales for Siebel's federal government business to become senior VP of SAP's North American CRM unit. more > Businesses Pay Big Tab For IT Support A survey by Siemens Business Services says technical support can cost a big company more than $4 million annually in lost productivity. Technical support can cost a typical large company as much as $4.1 million in lost productivity as workers call for help when they should be working a tech outsourcer said Tuesday. more > Oil Prices Rise Stocks Fall Oil prices rose above $44 a barrel sending stocks lower after a five-session winning streak. Oil prices rose consumer spending dropped and rattled investors sent stocks lower ending a five-session winning steak for the Dow industrials. Technology stocks suffered the worst damage. more > CeBit America Canceled The show's owner Hannover Fairs says it couldn't raise enough money from tech companies to continue the New York show. CeBit America 2005 has been canceled because organizers have been unable to raise enough money from technology companies to hold the New York trade show a spokesman said Tuesday. more > Opinion: Focus On RFID's Possibilities Manage The Pitfalls RFID's future in corporate application portfolios depends on companies leveraging RFID to improve their responsiveness and become more adaptive. But that will take time. Just as we gave the bar code time to mature we must demonstrate the same level of patience with RFID and its technology suppliers. more > NYSE Plans To Expand Electronic Trading Volume As expected the exchange unveils upgrade to DirectPlus to increase investor choice and NYSE competitiveness with all-electronic exchanges. The New York Stock Exchange will phase in over the next year a turbocharged version of its Direct Plus electronic trading system that it hopes will significantly expand the volume of trades processed electronically currently about 10%. more > Stock Markets Shrug Off Terror Threat Good news from the manufacturing sector offset renewed warnings of terrorist attacks in some key financial facilities. more > Financial Institutions Prepared For Threats Business-continuity plans are in order and the sector is open for business as usual. One day after Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge raised the terrorism threat level from yellow to orange for financial institutions in New York New Jersey and Washington D.C. banks reiterated their preparedness against a Sept. 11-type attack and restated their commitment to safeguarding their physical and technology assets. more > SCO Turns Focus Away From Legal Battles President and CEO Darl McBride focused his speech at SCO Forum on the company's strategy for getting its Unix-based products back on the map. More than 400 of SCO Group faithful packed into an MGM Grand Hotel ballroom Monday to hear a very different message at SCO Forum than they did a year ago. Talk of intellectual-property litigation was toned down to allow time for the company to address its strategy for getting its Unix-based products back on the map. more > Scripting Language Tools Get Upgrades ActiveState and Zend Technologies both have updated their tools for open-source scripting languages. Scripting languages such as Perl or Tcl frequently are what make the disparate parts of corporate Web sites work together. Two companies that supply tools for open-source scripting languages upgraded their offerings this month. more > NYSE To Further Upgrade Automated Execution System The improvements will allow the NYSE to process more trades electronically and enable sweeping an order The New York Stock Exchange next week will unveil a plan for further upgrading its automated execution system Direct Plus to enable more trades to be processed electronically. Earlier this year the NYSE upgraded the system to handle orders of any size and to let investors use the system as often and as rapidly as they like; previously Direct Plus was restricted to order sizes of less than 1 100 shares and investors had to wait 30 seconds before entering another order. more > Microsoft Issues Security Fix For Internet Explorer The patch deemed critical by Microsoft fixes three publicly disclosed vulnerabilities as well as many previously fixed Internet Explorer security holes to date. Microsoft has issued a cumulative software patch for Internet Explorer that it has deemed critical the software maker's most severe security ranking. more > Tata Consultancy Looks Formidable With $1 Billion In Cash Tata Consultancy is looking to raise more than $1 billion in an IPO as the 28 000-employee offshore outsourcer joins other fast-growing publicly traded Indian IT firms. Tata Consultancy Services' public stock sale that began Thursday will give it a major infusion of cash that could make the fast-growing Indian firm an even-tougher competitor. The 28 000-employee outsourcer which counts General Electric and General Motors among its customers launched a one-week public offering period on India's National Stock Exchange and Mumbai Stock Exchange floating up to 13% of the company's shares at a price range between $16.28 and $18.90. more > Stocks Keep Rising Despite Oil Price Surge The key indexes closed up for the day and the week thanks to some late-day buying. more > Investors Jump Back In A dip in oil prices helped persuade investors to get back into a buying mode giving technology issues a boost. Sensing oversold conditions tech investors jumped back into buying mode Thursday driving most technology issues upward. Leading the charge was the battered semiconductor sector followed closely by telecom stocks. Contributing to a day that saw all the major indexes inch higher was a dip in oil prices a day after rising fuel prices pulled the markets down. more > Internet Pioneers Say Thanks To Tulane Jim Clark of Netscape and David Filo of Yahoo are donating $30 million each to the university where they were undergraduates. Two Internet pioneers Jim Clark of Netscape and David Filo of Yahoo are donating $30 million each to Tulane University where they studied during their undergraduate years. more > Apple Threatens RealNetworks The company says Real may violate federal law with software that lets customers play their songs on a variety of devices. Apple Computer on Thursday issued a statement attacking RealNetworks Inc. a provider of digital-media services for offering software lets online music buyers at Real's music store play their songs on Apple's iPod music players. more > Relief as IT spend picks up You wouldn't call it a boom but IT executives are at least calling it a relief. After 18 months of false starts the long post-Y2K post dot-bust industry recession appears to be giving way to a period of solid if unspectacular growth. Vendors and analysts are reporting solid growth across all major industry sectors. more > HP Scales Up StorageWorks for Linux Hewlett-Packard Co. is boosting its storage grid architecture by enabling applications to see a single file system image across connected servers and devices within Linux environments. more > AmberPoint revs up Web services management toolkit; lands more funding AmberPoint is on a roll. As one of the few real leaders in the Web services management space according to most of the analysts who cover this arena the firm recently announced that it is making available a new release of its software. more > Time to rethink XML schema? It is probably too early to say for sure but it appears that Web services standards are quietly changing the world of development. Web services represent a detente of sorts between two big developer camps -- IBM and Microsoft. more > Developers Finding Gold at End of the Application Web services have expanded the sales channels for companies that consider Internet retailing a strategy for success—so long as they’re willing to adopt a philosophy of openness. Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. aim to help their customers increase sales through the Amazon and eBay Web sites by providing access to their APIs using standards such as XML-over-HTTP and SOAP. more > Actional Launches SOA Web Services Management Platform Actional Corp. Monday announced a new version of its Web services management platform featuring SOA (service-oriented architecture) management and the management of other services. more > Microsoft SAP: Web services deal followed failed merger bid Broken discussions on a Microsoft-SAP merger confirmed this week did not prevent the two companies from trying to knit together .NET and NetWeaver. Before an anticipated disclosure by the DoJ forced Microsoft and SAP to come clean on their now aborted merger talks the two companies announced “a significant expansion of their long-standing relationship.” Putting aside whatever ups and downs accompanied their merger negotiations late last year Microsoft and SAP shared a 10-year plan for cooperation with SAP customers at Sapphire ’04 in New Orleans last month. more > DataPower Reactivity add to their XML security line Amid the growing corporate interest in Web services-based infrastructures DataPower and Reactivity this week will introduce upgrades designed to help users boost XML security. more > PayPal opens Web services It seems that the business expansion strategy for successful portal-type sites is to open up to developers. We've seen this move from Amazon eBay and now from PayPal one of the e-commerce 800-pound gorillas. more > Spending explosion predicted for Web services Spending on Web services software is expected to rise tenfold to $11bn ($5.96bn) worldwide in 2008 as adoption of the technology moves from large corporations to mid-sized and small companies according to a report released on Tuesday by IDC. more > BEA bullish on Taurus transaction software BEA Systems with the planned Taurus version of its Tuxedo transaction processing platform is eyeing enhanced Web services support improved integration with the WebLogic Server application server and boosted security. more > Effort To Build Enterprise Architecture At DoD The Defense Department isn't doing enough to implement its enterprise architecture Congressional auditors have told Congress. After three years of effort and over $203 million in obligations we haven't seen any significant change in the content of DoD's architecture or in DoD's approach to investing billions of dollars annually in existing and new systems the General Accounting Office said in a May 17 letter that was released Tuesday. more > You can never be too rich says Groove Networks IBM's announcement last week of plans to deliver software designed to create a centrally managed server hub for delivering enterprise apps to PCs seems to have fired up the old thick- vs. thin-client debate at least among analysts and the tech media. Industry mavens noted that Big Blue's new thin-client Lotus Workplace offering could loosen mighty Microsoft's tight grip on the desktop. more > Developers Must Smash the Glass House The term glass house connotes a data processing department holding corporate data hostage behind nearly impenetrable barriers. Anyone outside the glass house struggles to get access to key business data stored there. more > New W3C standard choreographs Web services dance Three or more e-business companies have Web services and they want to connect so what do they do? Send each other their WSDLs and hope for the best? more > Compuware Enhances Uniface SOA IDE Compuware (NASDAQ: CPWR) introduced Compuware Uniface 8.4 the latest version of its unified development environment for designing building and deploying enterprise business applications. The vendor says enhancements to Compuware Uniface 8.4 “extend the product's ability to support organizations implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach in order to boost productivity ease integration efforts and maximize existing legacy investments.” more > It's Time to Actively Manage Your SOA If you were the CIO or chief architect at a company and I told you that you are already running multiple Web services how would you react? Pleasantly surprised? Shocked? Would you be upset? more > Oracle Ships Web Services Tools Oracle Corp. announced last week the availability of its latest Java and Web services development environment and said its Java application server continues to see strong sales. more > Something Ventured Something Gained Roger Sippl is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and executive well known as a founder of CRM software company Vantive and database pioneer Informix. But that was then; now venture capitalists want to know the prospects of Sippl's latest startup a Web services company called Above All Software. To find out VC group J.P. Morgan Partners turned to its Technology Council a group of 20-plus CIOs and CTOs who gathered in Las Vegas last November. more > Help For Developers Who Aren't Steeped In Java Oracle is shipping JDeveloper 10g an updated development toolset designed to help programmers who aren't well-versed in Java build enterprise-scale Java apps and Web services. The development software is the final component of Oracle's 10g product lineup that includes Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g both of which debuted late last year. more > Review: Cape Clear SOA Editor Remember Web services? They got all the buzz a couple of years ago and then the enthusiasm died down a bit. But the end result was to have plenty of competent developers working on Web services and gradually a body of knowledge has built up around them. One tenet that many of the top Web services developers agree on is WSDL first : build the contract before you build the code. That can cause a small problem though if you don't have an editor that lets you easily create WSDL files. more > SERENA Offers Process Management for Managing Mainframe Development SERENA Software a supplier of software that automates change to enterprise applications has introduced an automated process management solution for managing mainframe development. The solution TeamTrack for ChangeMan combines the capabilities of SERENA TeamTrack with SERENA ChangeMan ZMF the company's mainframe software change management solution. TeamTrack for ChangeMan enforces consistent processes and promotes user accountability across the application life cycle resulting in communication and productivity improvements enterprise-wide. Through Team Track for ChangeMan SERENA offers a single process automation solution for mainframe environments. more > IBM Scales Down Mainframe Products For Midsize Companies In a move to both protect and grow its coveted mainframe installed base IBM on Wednesday introduced scaled-down versions of its zSeries and enterprise storage server that it hopes will appeal to a broader spectrum of midsize companies. more > 2004 Innovators create applications that make a difference locally and globally While the dot-com boom and bust is now relegated to the dustbin of technological history Web applications are increasingly allowing business and government to improve service and significantly boost ROI. more > Noel-Levitz eases college recruitment process -- garners savings Competition among colleges and universities for the best and the brightest has never been stronger and institutions are always looking for an edge. It is the job of Noel-Levitz a unit of education funding provider SLM Corp. (better known as Sallie Mae) to provide that edge. The Littleton Colo.-based consultant has long aided university clients in student recruitment and retention financial aid market research publication and Web site development. more > Collection takes Web services route Meta data management is something of a new concept among financial service providers but it proved to be key to the success of a major IT innovation at CompuCredit. Last March the Atlanta-based specialty financial services and credit card company asked its IT organization to develop a way for its collection agents and customer service reps to use Web services to access and process data in real time. This January the group went into production with a solution: an information portal called the XML Business Gateway. more > B2B standard targets integration A standards effort that aims to do for business-to-business documents what the Dewey Decimal System does for library collections is gaining momentum. The proposed standard is called Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF). Its charter is to simplify messaging among partners suppliers and customers and reduce the work required to build interfaces between systems. more > Sarvega adding security appliances to XML lineup Web services start-up Sarvega this week will introduce two security products that should help customers track changes within the security infrastructure and protect against denial-of-service attacks. The appliances - the XML Guardian Security Accelerator and the XML Guardian Security Gateway - support XML Digital Signature and XML Encryption standards which are digital forensic capabilities through Sarvega's XESOS operating system. more > Microsoft to Release New Web Services Spec Microsoft Corp. and a group of fellow-travelers are planning to release a new Web services specification late Tuesday which will help provide Web services interoperability and support for occasionally-connected devices and systems sources said. The new specification is called WS-Discovery and is supported by Microsoft Canon Inc. BEA Systems Inc. and Intel Corp. The companies are set to announce the specification at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco sources said. more > Premier 100 panel: Flexibility key to managing IT change What's the best way to cope with constant changes in data management enterprise integration and Web services inside your enterprise IT organization? For the five members of a panel discussion here at Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference yesterday one key to riding the constant wave of IT change is staying flexible enough to implement technological best practices as they emerge and evolve. more > Teros enters XML security space Application firewall maker Teros Inc. said today that it is adding features to its Secure Application Gateway product line that will protect Web services. more > Zooming in on XAML Jim Allchin group VP of Microsoft's Platforms Group previewed Avalon the graphics subsystem behind Longhorn's new presentation technologies at the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) last October. There has been a lot of interest in Aero the new task-based (or iterative) user interface that is based on Avalon. more > Infravio Brings Web Services to Sabre Travel services company Sabre Holdings Corp. is delivering a large-scale Web services deployment project with the help of Web services management software from Infravio Inc. Officials at Sabre of Southlake Texas said they are using Infravio's new Ensemble 4 Web services management suite as the cornerstone of a new Sabre Web Services portal and an overall SOA (service-oriented architecture) model the company is implementing. more > Italian Credit-Card Company Finds Value In Web Service CartaSi S.p.A one of Europe's largest credit-card companies says it's having great success with a Web service implemented nearly two years ago that lets its call-center agents more rapidly process some 50 000 customer calls that come in daily. CartaSi which has 7.5 million credit cards outstanding and services 16 banks in Italy implemented NetManage Inc.'s OnWeb at a cost of about $100 000. It calls up customer data located on multiple applications in its mainframe systems and captures it for presentation in HTML pages says Luca Bellati who heads demand management at CartaSi. more > Study: Web Services on the Way Out Developers are becoming more comfortable with Web services and are working on twice as many software development projects for outside trading partners as they were in 2002 according to a recent study by Evans Data Corp. This embrace of Web services is fueling what Evans sees as a resurgence in business-to-business e-commerce for the first time since the dot-com implosion of 2001. more > Web services based portals: The wave of the future? Part two Web services-based portals are a new wave information resource that can give employees and managers powerful tools for gathering information making decisions and getting their work done most effectively. These new portals may well be the wave of the future in the enterprise. In my previous column I looked at what Web services-based portals are what benefits they offer and whether they really are the wave of the future. In this second part we'll look at the standards and technologies that make the portals possible. more > The Privacy Lawyer: Here's To Happy Safe Holidays How do you find out if your family's personal information is on the Web when it shouldn't be? Parry Aftab offers a how-to for seeing what personal information is out there and suggestions for getting it removed. As the holidays approach many of us are buying new and faster computers for our family using new and faster access. I thought that in preparation for the holidays and increased surfing and sharing personal information with all those E-commerce sites out there I would share some online safety privacy and security tips with you. more > WS-I ships Web services best practices The Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization last week released its Sample Application 1.0 a set of use cases usage scenarios and technical architecture intended to help define best practices for using the WS-I's Basic Profile 1.0 and to offer Web services developers some real-world examples to help with their own projects. more > The pathway to a service-oriented architecture I recently read through a large collection of analyst reports on service-oriented architecture (SOA) that have been published in the last year. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of agreement among these industry observers and their generally optimistic outlook for the uptake of this technology. SOA is not really new -- by some accounts it dates back to the mid-1980s -- but it's starting to become practical across enterprise boundaries because of the rise of the Internet as a way of connecting people and companies. more > Users Proceed Cautiously on Web Services Track IBM Microsoft Corp. and other vendors that have been pounding the Web services drum for more than two years claim that more and more of their customers are building Web services. And to a degree they're right. But the spotty levels of adoption by corporate users was plainly evident in a random poll of 15 IT professionals at Gartner Inc.'s recent Application Integration and Web Services Summit here. more > How Will Web Services Ultimately Change Business? The day will come when automated machines don't just tell each other what to do but will figure out how do it. Web serivces has been a long time coming and it will be a while before it arrives at least with the standards that are needed for the technology to live up to its promise (see The Battle for Web Services. ) But the day will definitely come when computers conduct what CIO Executive Editor Christopher Koch describes as deep meaningful interactions with no human intervention. Shortly thereafter automated machines will be capable of not just telling each other what to do but figuring out how to do it and doing it using computer code human proteins or both. more > Gates: Blazing the Longhorn Trail The smoke having almost cleared from several years of antitrust proceedings Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is turning his attention to what he's calling seamless computing. The most influential figure in the software industry is confronting other challenges as well including following through on his company's Trustworthy Computing initiative to make Windows more secure. In addition Gates is shepherding a landmark Windows upgrade in Longhorn which is due in 2006 while fending off the Linux challenge and pushing Web services for application integration. Gates discussed these issues and more in an interview with eWEEK Editor in Chief Eric Lundquist at Comdex in Las Vegas last week. ************** more > Interview: IBM's Sutor on how SOAs fuel integration Big Blue is betting big on the broad-based acceptance of Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) as the best way to help corporate users integrate application functions and data across the wild patchwork of software platforms they deal with every day. At the center of IBM's SOA strategy is WebSphere which figures to play an integral role in helping fuel that strategy. And at the center of the company's WebSphere strategy is Bob Sutor a long-time IBM executive now in charge of overseeing the present state and future direction of WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Studio product lines. ************* more > Scouts Canada blazes trail in membership data access For most of the 19 years that Tom Obright has been with Scouts Canada the results of the September-to-November recruiting drive were not available until August of the following year. Not exactly real-time reporting or even right-time reporting. The nine-month lag in processing and reporting on data meant leaders couldn't perform basic analysis said Obright director information management for the Scouting organization. For example Scouts officials were unable to see the results of recruiting by postal code to know what percentage of boys and girls in a geographic area were getting an opportunity to join local Scouts groups. more > OASIS Sings of Web Services in Harmony The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) last month announced it is working to create guidelines for Web services implementation as well as a specification for getting Web services to work together. The Framework for Web Services Implementation (FWSI) technical committee plans to deliver two specifications—the Web Services Implementation Process Specification and the Web Services Functional Elements Specification—according to Roberto Pascual co-chair of the FWSI committee. more > Composite Iona WebMethods look to distributed model. Enterprise IT departments seeking tools to pool their Web services into an integrated collection—called a services-oriented architecture—can turn to new and upcoming offerings from startup Composite Software Inc. Iona Technologies plc. and WebMethods Inc. Each company wants to move application integration beyond centrally managed point-to-point linkages to a more distributed model. If you want legacy data to participate in a new world where everything looks like a service you have to put a service infrastructure in front of the data said Jim Green Composite CEO and former chief technology officer at WebMethods. ************* more > Web services depression I just read a 97-page analysis of the current state of Web services technology. I am not certain the document is in the public domain so it can't be named but the source is reputable. The analysis highlighted the state of play in all the areas of activity where standards are being developed and to be frank it made depressing reading. Why? When all the information about Web services standards and their progress is put into the same place it becomes patently obvious that we are a long way along the road to having multiple 'standards' from multiple suppliers; too far along for easy conversion or re-routing to any alternative. more > Merrill Lynch Talks Up Web Services Programming experience in Java or C# aren't the only job skills that might be helpful for an IT manager plotting a service-oriented development strategy. IT executives at New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. an early adopter of Web services have found that communications skills are especially important to spread the word about the Web services they're hoping their colleagues will put to good reuse. more > IBM Microsoft Show Off Advanced Web Services Technologies IBM and Microsoft Corp. staged a demonstration here last week to show how the advanced Web services specifications that they have developed will make it easier for companies with disparate systems to securely and reliably engage in electronic business transactions. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and IBM Senior Vice President Steve Mills who heads the company’s software group pledged to seek vendor and customer feedback on their advanced specifications for security reliable messaging and transactions before submitting their work to a standards body. more > Microsoft IBM push Web services advances Microsoft and IBM usually bitter rivals on Wednesday demonstrated how their competing software packages can interact using Web services and pledged cooperation in establishing additional standards. At a press briefing here Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Steve Mills the executive in charge of IBM's software unit demonstrated for the first time what Gates termed advanced Web services capabilities designed by the two companies for linking business software. more > It’s All About the Relationship Internet-based systems and applications are fueling the growth and complexity of database systems according to Richard Bolesta brand manager for Computer Associates International Inc.’s Unicenter software. “Before the Internet a company might process one order for 1 000 items ” said Bolesta. “Now it’s not uncommon for companies to process 1 000 orders for a single item and collect detailed information about customers.” more > Web services and the data center of tomorrow part one The data center of the future will be very different than the one you use today. Most experts expect it to be grid-like self-healing and able to more quickly assign resources to business problems as they arise. But where do Web services fit into the data center of tomorrow? Will they be at the core of things or relegated to the sidelines? In large part that will be decided by computing behemoths like IBM Microsoft and Sun. In this first part of a two-part column on the topic we'll look at how Web services fit into IBM's vision of the data center. more > Longhorn and the battle for Web services IBM Sun Microsystems and BEA Systems are each courting developers to help ensure that their server software is the preferred choice for implementing business applications. But in Redmond Wash. the folks at Microsoft are again working hard on a plan to outflank their Java rivals. This time it’s a software tool that will supposedly ease the creation of heavy-duty Web services applications. The product which in some way shape or function has been in the works for a couple of years will provide a sticky middleware layer specially created to work with Microsoft products. (More details are expected at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in October.) more > Why IT projects fail Ever wondered why IT project status reports are so upbeat managers continue to fund losing efforts and some projects are doomed from the start? Sue Young CEO of ANDA Consulting in Colchester Vt. thinks about that all the time. She talked with Computerworld’s Mitch Betts about preventing failure in IT projects and why risk management isn’t enough. Why are IT status reports often so rosy even for projects in trouble? Because status isn’t reported in objective observable terms. It’s often put in subjective terms like “percent done ” or “red ” “yellow” or “green.” As long as you allow reporting to be done in subjective terms you’re going to get results that could be colored. Instead you should look at “Is it done or not done?” where done has a clear definition. If you want to use colors have a clear definition of what those colors mean. more > SCO Advances SCOx Initiative With Web Services Development Environment At SCO Forum 2003 SCO announced key components of its SCOx Web services initiative the SCOx WebFace Solution Suite 4.0 the SCOsms Web Services API and SCObiz Web Services APIs. Also announced was a strategic alliance with Ericom Software. more > Fewer students opt for IT courses A significant fall in the number of applications for university IT courses has left hundreds of computer-related courses up for grabs in the clearing system. Applications for computer science courses this year were down 12% from the previous year although the number of IT-based courses rose from 1 385 to 1 570. At the time of writing around 80% of university IT courses had vacancies. University IT courses break down into four subject areas: computer science information systems software engineering and artificial intelligence. Applications for all of these courses are thought to be down on last year. Signs that students are shunning technology courses comes as the IT industry struggles under its worst downturn for 10 years. Over the past few years companies have shed thousands of IT staff and consultants and trimmed back investment in new projects. more > Gartner: Web services projects roll along While the sluggish U.S. economy is slowing Web services development it has not stopped it by a long shot according to a survey this summer by Gartner Inc. (http://www.gartner.com) a Stamford Conn.-based consulting firm. The Gartner Dataquest survey of North American enterprises found that while more than 48% of the firms surveyed had cut spending on Web services the belt tightening was not so severe that projects were discontinued. While almost half the respondents were more > Microsoft Plans Foray Into Web Services Management Microsoft Corp.'s effort to become a bigger player in the systems management market will extend to Web services as early as next year but more likely around 2006 with the next Windows server release company executives disclosed. Eric Rudder senior vice president of servers and tools at Microsoft told Computerworld that the company plans to have compelling offerings to help users both manage Web services and use them to manage their other systems. Start-ups have gotten the early jump in the fledgling Web services management market but new offerings are expected by year's end from Computer Associates International Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. more > Defining Web Services You know Web services is going to be a success when every vendor redefines its product to be a Web service. We're pretty much there. Interested in buying an application server? I don't think you can anymore but you can certainly buy an information server which is the same box but in Web services wrapping paper. How about finding a software integration consultant? Out of luck again. But you can hire that same consultant renamed—and repriced—as a Web services integrator. Can the rebranding of mouse pads and printers be far behind? more > Web Services Via Micro Focus Net Express For COBOL Jorgen Thelin's had a little quiz up about Guess the Programming Language for full access to XML Web Services - well using Microfocus NetExpress even Cobol can become Web Services enabled... I remember a german product being available aprox. 2 yrs ago providing the same functionality (I saw their presentation on the XML Web Services Conference 2001 where I spoke)... unfortuantely I cannot remember their name nor product at the moment... I'll enqueue a lookup-batch in my brain-background processor. more > Perspective on XML: What is this ‘agility’? A hot buzzword these days is “agility.” The pitch is that software development can be more like a maneuverable motorcycle than a lumbering locomotive. Locomotives proceed only along the fixed track laid for them and their huge inertia makes any sort of adjustment very difficult. Motorcycles on the other hand can start quickly and zip smoothly past obstacles in the road. Software engineering doctrine advocates heavy process where analysis feeds design more design and yet more design and only then does one contemplate implementation testing and finally maintenance. Some people call this approach BDUF short for “Big Design Up Front.” In its strictest forms it is nicknamed “waterfalls ” a term that has become rather derisive. more > Secure Web Services Across Platforms BEA is a force in the Java world; its product line includes the WebLogic Server Portal Integration and Workshop along with the older Tuxedo application management environment. BEA matters to many .NET development groups because they’re often called on to integrate their applications—particularly .NET clients—with Java-based servers and Web services such as BEA’s and IBM’s. Heterogeneous systems represent a critical security arena and BEA’s Fortune 500 customer list means the company has to actively pursue standards-based security solutions. BEA has been a leader in this area so it made sense for .NET Magazine to talk with CTO Scott Dietzen about integration and security across the .NET/Java chasm. more > Gartner Survey Shows Despite U.S. Economic Slowdow The sluggish U.S. economy has impacted the investments by many companies in Web services projects but it has not killed these projects according to a survey by Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). According to the survey 48 percent of North American enterprises said the economic slowdown has caused them to reduce spending on Web services development but not so much as to discontinue these projects. more > Microsoft WSE V.2: Signs of Web services to come Microsoft announced yesterday the availability of a new Web services preview that adds enhanced support for TCP and HTTP as well as asynchronous and synchronous communications. The release dubbed Microsoft Web Services Enhancements (WSE) Version 2.0 also eases the task of setting security policies for Web services according to Rebecca Dias product manager for advanced Web services at Microsoft. more > Standards Competition: A Good Thing? A few weeks ago the Liberty Alliance released their business requirements and guidelines for wide scale identity federation. At around the same time the IBM and Microsoft-led consortium charged with developing the WS-Security roadmap of specifications released the first public version of their WS-Federation specification which aims to enable federation of identity attribute authentication and authorization information. The press jumped all over this seeming competition between identity federation specifications issuing headlines like “Infighting Unravels Web Services” and “Rivalry Bogs Down Web Services”. ZapThink was the first in line to point out that the world doesn’t need two competing identity federation standards but do we see Web Services unraveling or bogging down as a result? Hardly! more > Web Services Can Cut Costs Eventually the arguments about any new technology's lack of elegance subside and the discussion of what it is good for begins to dominate the conversation. Web services have the good fortune of being dull by nature. Any reporter can whip up interest in companies like the dot-coms which went from nonexistence to billion-dollar valuations in just a few years but it takes preternatural talent to get data interchange to excite readers. more > .Net Highlights from Around the Web Summaries of the latest .NET articles from around the web. more > |
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