Summary

Web services are not a panacea for all the programming woes of the world, but they offer a basis for a new kind of software and a new way to design software. The fun part, which we’re only starting to scratch at, is exactly how that software will work and be designed. Currently, the possibilities for Web services are understood only within the context of existing solutions. Enterprise Application Integration continues to be the main motivational force behind Web services, but it won’t remain that way. It won’t be allowed to be.

The question remains—what does the future hold? Microsoft is incorporating Web services into practically all its software, and IBM and Sun aren’t too far behind. But where will the truly new leaps in software come from? Web services over P2P? Will XML become omnipresent and require its own coprocessor? Will SOAP (or XMLP) make HTTP obsolete and become a transport in its own right? We’re looking forward to finding out.