TABLE OF CONTENTS It is safe to say without any fear of contradiction, if one wants to cut to the chase, that Web services transform everything to do with applications. Furthermore, this bold assertion, bereft of any qualifiers, caveats, or verbs relative to the term applications, is not mere hyperbole. Web services really do positively impact everything associated with applications both on the supply and demand side. Anybody and everybody who is exposed to software, in whatever role, whether as an application user, developer, financier, portal visitor, salesperson, or sustainer, will enjoy some tangible benefits made possible by Web services hence, all the hoopla about Web services. Web services go beyond just changing the paradigm when it comes to applications. Web services are truly iconoclastic!
Though one can think of Web services as being an application development specific methodology, this is far from being the whole picture. Web services also have a very productive role to play when it comes to existing applications. This is particularly the case when it comes to the so-called mission-critical applications that sustain the operations of medium- to large-scale commercial, academic, and research enterprises. Web services enable problem-solving logic from existing applications to be reused. Web services are thus a way to recycle software.
Web services are a standardized, universal, and sure-fire mechanism for isolating, capturing, and modularizing software functionality so that it can be easily reused with alacrity. Thus, Web services, in effect, can make application owners into application software moguls!
