Industry essay: What are Web Services? -- Computer Science

Industry essay What are mesh avails?Web function oblige been nagd over the past year to be the mostinnovative improvement that has come to the Internet. It has beenadopted by many companies, and has r severallyed the forefront ofapplications stupefyment. So what is all the hype about?Web services can be described as an application that can be deployedor called over the Internet that allows applications to communicatewith each other- regardless of the language in which they are writtenor which systems platform and operating system is being used. Eachservice is a discrete social unit of code, and performs a small set of giventasks.Typically, weave services make use of standard vane protocols to performits tasks- it usually follows an revisal 1) find the vane servicerequested, 2) determine how the web service is called once it isfound, and 3) call the program or service requested. For the searchportion, UDDI (Universal Discovery, Description, and Integration) ismainly used. I t is a service that essentially is a directory of webservices, and UDDI helps the user find the web service or program forwhich he is looking. WSDL (Web Service Definition Language) is mostoften used to describe how the web service or program should becalled, and XML to communicate this. Finally, Simple Object AccessProtocol (SOAP) encodes the XML data sent and received, and shares thedata in messages over http.The electric potential power of web services can be displayed in a number ofdifferent ways. Web services are being used to coalesce all sorts ofdata- from local programs interfacing with each other across a localarea network, to large enterprise-level applications communicatingacross the Internet. A few examples of how web services can beutilized are listed below* A return pole is damaged in a remote area of Massachusetts, and autility company has to come in and replace it. However, in orderto do this, the cable, telephone, and electric utility companieshave to act in a ce rtain order in order for the damaged pole to beremoved. Web services can be used to determine the status of theactions taken by the one-on-one companies, since the order of theactions is based on which utility owns the pole.* A company wants to measure how much a particular product it hassold, which customers bought how much of the product, when thenex... ...partners. In other words, web servicesallow the bounds on software integration to be greatly expanded. It isnow a great selling point for companies, particularly those thatdevelop software. And at first, those companies that develop webservices will benefit, but the success will eventually give way tothose businesses that leverage web services in the most useful manner.INDEXBrown, Bob, in an interview with Zimon, Gene (CIO and seniorvice-president of Nstar energy company), Utility IT Exec To ExplorePower of Web Services, Network World, December 2, 2002McAllister, Neil, Service Economy Will Web Services Be the Savior ofthe Indu stry? New Artchitect, April 18, 2002http//www.fatalexception.org/articles/2002/20020418.htmlMicrosoft Corporation, What Are Web Services?, May 15, 2003http//www.microsoft.com/net/basics/webservices.aspSaxby, Barbara Angius, Web Services A Floor Wax or Dessert Topping?,March 7, 2002http//www.goto-silicon-valley.com/articles/barbara-angius-saxby/web_services.pdfSholler, Daniel, METAReport What Are Web Services, Anyway?,Datamation, January 16, 2002http//itmanagement.earthweb.com/it_res/article.php/955861