Overview

Deployment- and management-related concerns, in practice, will circumscribe all the real-world operational issues currently facing those trying to use or offer production-grade Web services for enterprise-level applications. This, as the saying goes, is when the rubber really hits the asphalt when it comes to Web services, or when one quite literally has to start reconciling the hype with the hardware. The real problem here, to immediately cut to the chase, is that the dynamics surrounding Web services have been dramatically undermined by circumstances outside the scope of Web-services technology and industry.

It is fair to say that the world socially, economically, and technologically has changed quite a bit and unexpectedly between mid-2000, when Web services were first being postulated, and now. First, there was the crash and burn of the dot.coms that tarnished the credibility, even if it was subliminally, of e-business. Then there was 9/11!

While the repercussions of 9/11 were still reverberating, there was the anthrax scare. The threat of terrorism, in all forms, including that of cyber-terrorism, started to impact all forms of decision making, whether corporate or personal. A siege mentality set in. In big cities such as New York people wait for another shoe to drop. The relentless attacks by the hacker community continue to add insult to injury. Pantophobia, a fear of everything, is rife. There are people who have stopped opening regular mail and others who have stopped using e-mail.

It is against this...