Smitten by Web Services

Citing huge business opportunities, IT majors like Microsoft and Sun are now
chalking out different strategies to grab a share of the Web services pie.

While Sun has taken the portable code approach, spanning languages, platforms
and applications that run on J2EE, Microsoft is pushing interoperability of
dissimilar systems and applications. It is using a set of protocols, including
XML, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), UDDI (Universal Description,
Discovery and Integration) and WSDL (Web Services Description Language).

These protocols help Web services to be described and registered to a central
storehouse where they can be located and ultimately consumed over the Internet.

The Battleground

It is interesting to note that XML-based Web services, however, downgrade
the need for Java’s Write Once, Run Anywhere approach. With standards-based
interoperability of Web services, applications that support a particular
protocol are able to communicate with one another, reducing the need to have the
same code running down everywhere.

"Web services is a place where there is a lot of scope for future
business and Sun has realized it, a bit late though. We were the first ones to
innovate business models out of web services, everyone else is just jumping on
the moving train," quipped Dilip Mistry, director, .NET at Microsoft.

But at the same time analysts claim that XML is only capable of doing one
part of the work Java handles in terms of code interactions, and that XML and
Web services by no means can replace Java. Although XML is good for representing
data, it does not provide a way to address the business logic and processes used
to manipulate the data and make it useful–a strength Java brings to the front.

Many of the larger players, like Sun, offer a complete Web services solution.
"The J2EE platform offers single-vendor solutions for legacy applications
in any environment. Quite the opposite, .NET only supports legacy Microsoft
customers. Sun collaborated with other industry leaders like BEA, Oracle, and
IBM to define J2EE. The primary goal of J2EE enthusiasts is to give customers a
choice of vendors and encourage quality products through increased competition.

To this end, they created an industry standard with J2EE. Microsoft’s .NET
framework, on the other hand, is a rewrite of Windows DNA that includes a Web
services layer," Sun India systems engineering director Anil Valluri said.

Indeed, Sun and its J2EE brigade are fiercely marketing their merchandise as
the substructure for developing and deploying Web services, positioning
themselves as an alternative to Microsoft’s .Net.

Hyderabad based Pramati Technology, one of the few global Indian success
stories in the application server space, has put long-term bets on J2EE.

It has conceptualized and developed its core product-application server
purely based on J2EE approach. "Java offers binary compatibility for
applications across platforms and an ‘open architecture’ approach makes sure
that Java standards are driven through Java Community Process (JCP) comprising
all enterprise software vendors, except Microsoft. This gives rise to an open
architecture without a vendor bias," said Pramati Technologies CTO and
co-founder Vijayprasanna Pullur.

However, it is a well-known fact that Sun has been slow to embrace the core
de facto Web services standards–SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL–and till sometime back
the company was putting a lot of stock in ebXML (e-business XML).

"Sun believed that ebXML could be used for Web services. Sun’s stance
on ebXML was not so much that it is an alternative to SOAP, UDDI and WSDL, but
rather as a broader e-business initiative, encompassing those same Web services
qualities and much more under the umbrella of e-business transactions,"
Mistry added.

"It (ebXML) was designed primarily for business-to-business interaction.
The Web services protocols-UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) provide services that
perform many similar functions, but ebXML is broader in scope and functionality.
But, companies are likely to use both UDDI/SOAP and ebXML. Both solutions are
built on open standards and rely heavily on XML. For these reasons, ebXML and
UDDI/SOAP may work together through gateways to permit access to even more
businesses," explained Valluri.

According to Sun the fundamental goal of ebXML is to create a single global
electronic market. This is accomplished by developing a single set of
internationally agreed-upon specifications, which are developed keeping in mind
things such as multi lingual support, compliance with W3C XML technical
specifications and other issues related to interoperability.

Friend or Foe

Keeping in line with that old adage–keep your friends close and your
enemies closer–Microsoft is now working closely with one-time rivals IBM and
BEA Systems. Both IBM and BEA also just happen to be two of Sun’s most valued
partners or, the two J2EE licensees currently battling for the prized
application server market hotspot.

"We have been doing a lot of work together with IBM and will continue to
explore opportunities as well. We do not rule out the possibility to work with
Indian companies like Pramati in the near future. The whole idea of Web services
is so flexible that there is enough scope for our competition to partner with us
on different fronts," Mistry adds.

Microsoft and IBM are developing the technology and trying to push it through
standards bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Some industry analysts say that this is the opposite of how standards are
typically formed, with the norm being to start with an idea and submit that to a
standards body; after the standards organization’s members work on it, an
adoptable technology emerges.

Undismayed by Microsoft’s apparent taking over of the standards process for
e-business transactions–whether they’re called Web services or plain old
e-business–Sun has already worked on adapting Java to meet the needs of Web
services by supporting SOAP and UDDI in addition to XML.

"Of course Web services will have an impact on where Java goes
long-term. We’re at the forefront of a long-ranging trend toward a new
distributed computing. J2EE is a standard embraced by more than 50 vendors; .NET
is a product developed by a single vendor.

Another example of the industry momentum behind J2EE can be seen with the
Java Community Process (JCP), a community of 500 individuals and companies
working to enhance the J2EE specification and create new interfaces,"
explains Sun’s Valluri.

In a related development, Sun is also planning to arm the pending J2EE 1.4
with Web services support. According to sources close to Java development,
"The major theme for the next version of J2EE is going to be Web
services."

The India Story

There is already a lot happening in this arena as far as the sub-continent
is concerned. Microsoft is participating in different projects involving
development and deployment of web services for different kinds of applications.

"We are in the process of developing a Web service-based application for
Indian Railways that will help users to pin point the location of trains with
the help of a browser. This is going to be an end-user based application, which
would be launched pretty soon. Similarly we are also developing some
e-governance based applications for the state government of Punjab," Mistry
said. "It’s pretty interesting, the way things are changing with the help
of .NET platform.

Mistry explains that a lot is at stake when it comes to architecture
investments, particularly before standards get ironed out. Infrastructure must
be interoperable with not only customers, but also with partners like ISVs,
while keeping both of them happy. Microsoft has launched a program–ISV
University, wherein the company is providing a mini-management course in
association with NASSCOM and IIM-Bangalore to its set of ISVs in the Asian
region.

While competing vendors wrangle over standards and implementations, companies
will have to evaluate which solution or combination of solutions best meets
their needs. Going forward web services are sure to be embedded within the
fabric of IT enablement and automation. Vendors like Microsoft and Sun will have
to keep themselves involved deeply in graduating the industry more towards the
adoption of web services.

Zia Askari with inputs from Sathya
Mithra Ashok in Bangalore CyberMedia News Service