Key Insights

• Personalizable Web services applications (such as messaging services) work today, and individuals should experiment with such services now.

• UDDI plays a key role in enabling Web services to find each other. Without it, applications will have to be hard-wired together (defeating one of the purposes of Web services the ability to automatically find and use application services). Until UDDI registries make a greater impact (expected in 2004 and 2005), enterprises for application integration and interoperability should be experimenting with SOAP and WSDL in the short term.

• Expect Web services to meet with greater industry acceptance post 2004.

So far in this book we have defined Web services, seen how they work in generic and real-world environments, and discussed the relative strengths and shortcomings of Web services architecture as compared to other approaches such as CORBA or COM. With respect to shortcomings, we explored the view that basic Web services registries and protocols are appropriate for low-volume, light-transactional applications at present, unless augmented with ancillary products that enhance security, reliability, quality of service and the like.

But in the previous chapter, we saw numerous examples of successful Web services application deployments, some of them in mission-critical, run-the-business situations.

So, given these conflicting perspectives, how do you decide when your organization should adopt Web services? This chapter examines some of the dynamics that may play a role in your decision-making process.