Web services: Meet the new boss; same as the old boss ???

This is a somewhat inflammatory article ... Anyone have thoughts on it?
Does is suggest anything that the WSA document should be looking at or
talking about more explicitly?
http://www.infoworld.com/infoworld/article/03/09/05/35FEws-soamain_1.html

' "I think the whole notion of a Web service was intuitively appealing
because the original scope of Web services was using them as a simple
integration tool. [But] it painted a rather rosy and low-tech picture
compared to proprietary EAI products." 
... The promise remains compelling -- and most enterprise developers have at
least given Web services a whirl. But planning, deploying and managing an
enterprisewide Web services implementation can be dauntingly complex. 

So guess who's ready to jump in and lend a hand? ... [the monster consulting
companies] ... Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. 

...

But wait a minute? Weren't Web services supposed to be a bottom-up endeavor?
The thinking was that IT could incrementally build Web services components
that could be linked as needed -- to add functionality to enterprise
portals, collect real-time business intelligence, hook into business partner
billing systems, and so on. To be sure, these notions have been embraced by
enterprise developers, many of whom have applied the new technology for
one-off projects. But managing and tracking Web services across an
enterprise and ensuring interoperability, security, and performance require
a new order of architectural discipline.' 

[The rest of the article is basically about the challenges of implementing
SOA's in legacy environments where IT and business people have to talk at
high bandwidth]

Received on Monday, 8 September 2003 17:19:43 UTC