Web services looks like being the next
wave in the development of standards based
shared services. Based on four sets of standards: XML for data, W3C SOAP for
message packaging, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) for
registering, publishing and finding appropriate services and Web Services Description
Language (WSDL) for describing services. Additional standards cover specific aspects
of web services such as security (WS-Security), routing of messages (WS-Routing)
and so on. To make sense of the wide range of web services specifications, the Web
Services Interoperability group (WS-I) produce a “basic profile” of recommended
specifications.
Web Services technology is agnostic with regard to programming languages – services
can be developed in Java, C#, Python, or any other language that can handle internet
technologies and XML. Toolkits, libraries, and products exist to support development of
services on all major platforms, reducing the time and cost of implementation.
