Summary

Chapter 12

Scalability and Availability

The primary reason for developing Web services is so that developers will use them to build solutions for their customers. No matter how cool or useful your Web service is, it can't provide any value if it is down. For a Web service to be adopted by developers, it must be reliable.

As your Web service becomes more popular, it must scale to meet the increasing demands of its clients, particularly if your Web service either indirectly or directly generates revenue for your company.

For example, suppose Woodgrove Bank allows its customers to transfer funds electronically from one account to another. And suppose the bank develops a Web service, called Banking, that allows its customers to request that funds be transferred. If the Banking Web service is consumed by personal financial management software packages such as Microsoft Money, it might need to support hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of clients.

The overall scalability and availability of a Web service is determined by its weakest link. Nontrivial Web services often leverage multiple resources such as databases and directory services. If a particular resource does not scale to meet the needs of the Web service, the Web service itself will not scale to meet the needs of its clients.

The Banking Web service relies on multiple resources to process a customer's request. These resources include a SQL Server database that holds customer account information as well as a legacy line-of-business (LOB) application that is used to coordinate the transfer of funds with other banks.

In this chapter, I present techniques for increasing the scalability and availability of your Web services as well as the resources they use. I also examine scalability and availability from the perspective of the client and explore ways to minimize the risks associated with using a Web service that is not under your direct control.



Building XML Web Services for the Microsoft  .NET Platform
Building XML Web Services for the Microsoft .NET Platform
ISBN: 0735614067
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 94
Authors: Scott Short

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