TABLE OF CONTENTS As with most issues pertaining to Web services, the first thing to note when thinking about implementing Web services is that there are two very distinct and different scenarios that have to be taken into account that is, Web services as a consumable versus Web services as a deliverable. Hence, implementation per se depends, and depends greatly, on whether your interest lies in using Web services to develop new applications or providing Web services to be used by others. Therefore, the first cut that has to be taken when looking at implementation-related issues is determining what side of the fence you intend to be on (i.e., the demand side as a consumer or the supply side as a provider). To make matters more interesting, each of these two camps can have very widely divergent players within them each with different motives and needs.
Let us start with the demand side. It is easy to see how Web services will be of immense interest and value to in-house programmers employed by corporations to develop and enhance proprietary corporate applications. These in-house programmers are thus seen by many as the predominant target market for enterprise-level Web services. This will no doubt be the case when the previously discussed issues such as security and manageability have been adequately addressed, but these are not the only enterprise-class software developers who are likely to want to use Web services.
Developers employed by software vendors are also likely to want...
