Web services introduction:

Shortly after two discrete applications emerge in any enterprise, there follows the need to connect them. This has been the case since the dawn of enterprise computing. Web services technology represents a discontinuity in the way applications are connected - both applications within a single enterprise and applications that interact across enterprise boundaries.

Using Web services technology as the basis for an application integration strategy brings substantial advantages to the adopter. But it also requires overcoming some clear challenges - exacerbated by the early state of the market. Customers attempting to harness the benefits of this technology today are grappling with a common set of reoccurring issues:

* How can I adopt an integration strategy based on Web services technology without a complete overhaul of my existing software investments?

* How can I securely leverage this technology, which itself lacks inherent security mechanisms?

* If I deploy this technology, how do I effectively manage it?

There is no doubt that web services technology will fundamentally change the business of application integration, and is an essential part of any business. Connectivity of existing infrastructure and people is at the core of successful integration of Web services, and finding a solution to efficiently accomplishing this connectivity is key. Companies are quickly adopting XML Web services, which are allowing them to cut costs, speed time-to-market and vastly improve customer care. However, many organizations currently have legacy environments that do not allow them to easily introduce - and then reap the incredible benefits of - Web services.

This speaker will address many of the hurdles keeping Web services from being a reality for Global 2000 companies, including time, monitoring, management, security and adaptation.

Web Services Deployment Considerations

While Web Services technologies provide the foundational components of a service-oriented architecture, there are notable challenges to be addressed. They can be broadly grouped into three categories:

* Application adaptation, service composition and business process orchestration

* End-to-end security

* Management, monitoring and auditing support

Application adaptation, service composition and business process orchestration.

Benefiting from a SOA approach means existing systems must be attached to the Web Services bus. This implies providing an adaptation layer for software not natively capable of exposing business logic via Web Services standards. Each Service on the bus will have associated software logic that implements the Service. An SOA deployment should provide maximum choice as to where that logic resides initially and a high degree of flexibility to change the logic implementation strategy without penalty in the future. The IT developer tasked with bringing the service to life should be able to choose from a number of methods the most appropriate implementation path for each individual service:

* Creating brand new software to implement the service

* Directly mapping to a single back-end software system function through a simple translation from SOAP to the existing software interface.

* Creating a composite Web Service that manages the sequenced calling of several functions across multiple software systems

* Orchestrating a potentially long-running business process using a workflow or business process management system