TABLE OF CONTENTS Using Web Services has the potential to impact software and systems at all levels. On a simple level, you can use Web Services to create a Web site feature or to create custom portals. On a more complex level, Web Services can serve as the basis for very sophisticated business-to-business software. As time goes on, it is entirely possible that the use of Web Services will introduce revolutionary ways of using the Internet for commercial and personal uses. This chapter provides examples of the initial impact of Web Services in improving Web site and internal system connections. It then uses the example of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to show the possibilities that the growing impact of Web Services can have on business-to-business connections.
| Note | A distinguishing characteristic of service-oriented architectures is their emphasis on the connections between services using Web Services. These connections will eventually evolve into plug-compatible services upon which we will build our information technology systems. The assembly will be more like making the desired connections among AV components in a home entertainment system than mapping out an enterprise architecture. Like AV components, services could be assembled in multiple ways depending on what we want to get out of our system. And with a service-oriented architecture, you just know that something is going to be invented that either you always wished you had or something that you couldn t have imagined. This might be the equivalent of a digital video recorder or a music file-sharing program. When it happens,... |
