Avoiding SOAP Scum |
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By Tyler McDaniel, Director, Application Strategies
21 Mar 2002 | Hurwitz Group, special to SearchWebServices |
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Market Commentary
Avoiding SOAP Scum
Hurwitz Group research clearly validates the whisperings that the first round of Web Services implementations are all about application integration. As part of ongoing research, the Hurwitz Group Web Services Primary Research Opportunity Study illuminates the concerns of early adopters and identifies uses and preferred suppliers among other issues. Should the industry be surprised that integration is high on the use case? Not at all.
Integration has popped up high in the minds of business decision makers attempting to squeeze more return out of existing application assets. Better integration strategies are a top business priority for 2002. Trying to build a more collaborative environment for employees, customers, and partners? Chances are integration technology is part and parcel of the effort. But reluctance to lay out a hefty sum of dollars for robust integration technology is also high on the minds of decision makers. Enter some alternatives... okay, one specific alternative: Web Services.
THE HURWITZ TAKE: Hurwitz Group does not argue the value of Web Services and its foundational use of standards. Is Web Services the alpha and omega of integration? Yes, no, and well, maybe. (It's never that simple.) Yes, because Web Services provides a very cost effective means to solve tactical integration problems -- much like the kind being funded at this stage of the economy. The tools are simple and easy-to-use on the whole, and certainly give developers a great foundation for meeting project deadlines. But on the other hand, no and well, maybe, Web Services doesn't or won't meet long-term needs.
Does having your head buried in tactical integration projects, even though executed with Web Services, lead to another layer of the familiar "spaghetti code" integration scenario? This could very well be the case unless Web Services and business process management are coupled together. BPM is still much needed in many enterprises, regardless of the underlying integration technologies being used. BPM offers one way to better manage the process life cycle of a web service, its state, and reusability. But, because Web Services is in the embryonic phase, we don't have a practical sense of what the life cycle will be, let alone best practices for each of the life cycle phases. Granted that Web Services isn't at this stage linked into BPM issues from a standards viewpoint -- although the rumblings around the Web Services Flow Language efforts could bear fruit. Hurwitz Group recommends that enterprises keep their eyes on Web Services as part of a BPM solution. Look for improved process support and management support for Web Services platforms. Point-to-point Web Services integration could lead to SOAP scum -- a residue of integration without BPM. The time to think about the process management of Web Services is now. Good planning will lead to the scalable and structured proliferation of Web Services.
Copyright 2002 Hurwitz Group Inc. This article is excerpted from TrendWatch, a weekly publication of Hurwitz Group Inc. - an analyst, research, and consulting firm. To register for a free email subscription, click here.
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