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Why Web Services won’t solve all integration problems

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Ken Vollmer



There is a popular misconception that Web Services will somehow enable organizations to implement integration links with external groups without having to implement any specialized application integration (AI) software. The most commonly heard phrase is "What all organizations need to do is expose their data and business process, and Web Services will make integration possible." This comment indicates a lack of understanding as to what is really required to implement external integration links.



Web Services focus on low-level details, such as service discovery and connectivity, but they do little or nothing to address the higher-level components of application integration, such as process modeling, workflow and process automation. In addition, even though Web Services have some potential for simplifying the data transformation process, the benefits will remain unachievable in many cases, due to the extensive modifications that would be required to retrofit existing applications in order to take advantage of them.



Another factor that will limit the adoption of Web Services is the "trading partner drag effect." Effective sharing of information in a network of related entities is highly dependent on the use of common technology and interfaces. Therefore, any organization able to support Web Services internally would still find it difficult to deploy across its value chain, as it is unlikely that its trading partners would universally adopt this capability for quite some time.



The impact of this phenomenon will vary by vertical industry, with some, such as financial services and travel services, implementing service-oriented architectures that will drive higher levels of Web Services adoption and result in a critical mass of users in these sectors. However, Giga is not as optimistic that Web Services will be widely adopted in other sectors in the near future.



The primary reason for this is the lack of a business driver that would compel adoption of this technology. For example, a large organization that has already implemented e-business capability with its larger trading partners using traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) would find it difficult to cost justify retrofitting its systems to work in a Web Services framework. At the same time, newer Web Forms and e-mail EDI applications are also providing low-cost options for smaller trading partners, thereby limiting the potential for Web Services-based advancements in this segment of organizations, which is traditionally difficult to connect.



Clients need to be skeptical about vendor claims that portray Web Services as a "silver bullet" that will resolve all of their integration problems. At the present time, there are no practical alternatives for implementing integration links with trading partners that do not include comprehensive integration software functionality.



(Contributing Analyst: Mike Gilpin)

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