Web Services Technology Articles

The new OASIS WS-Reliability standards and what they mean for business
Joseph Chiusano, Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, provides an overview of the newly released OASIS Web Services Reliability (WS-Reliability) standard and discusses the criticality of Web Services reliability for service-oriented architectures. Since the introduction of core Web Services specifications such as SOAP and WSDL, there has been an increasing need for organizations to utilize Web Services beyond point-to-point scenarios, for interactions across organizational boundaries and for mission-critical applications. One of the primary concerns about using Web Services in this manner up to now has been lack of reliability – that is, a lack of certainty that a message could be sent via Web Services and reach its intended destination without being dropped along the way (sometimes unbeknownst to the sender), or without being sent in the incorrect order relative to other messages. Given the ever-increasing adoption of service-oriented architectures that span organizational boundaries, the need for such reliability is more critical than ever. Over the past several years, we have seen the introduction of various message queuing vendor products that provide this capability for Web Services; however, reliance on a proprietary vendor product rather than one that leverages an open standard can lead to “vendor lock-in” and an inability to switch vendor products as necessary without an undue cost.

Universal Business Language (UBL) gets approved
OASIS has published a series of definitions that could make it easier for big companies to share business documents. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, on Monday gave final approval to a specification called Universal Business Language (UBL) version 1.0, a standardized document format. UBL is meant to make it easier to turn paper records into electronic ones and, ultimately, easier to share documents, such as purchase orders, between organizations doing business online. UBL is designed to work with commerce-related Extensible Markup Language (XML) and technical standards from OASIS called ebXML, which include a series of protocols for transporting information over the Internet. OASIS is an industry standards group whose members include technology providers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft, as well as companies using XML for business applications, such as Visa and Wells Fargo Bank. The ratification of UBL version 1.0 shows that the specifications, originally proposed in January of 2003, are accepted by companies that back the ebXML system. The UBL document formats, in conjunction with ebXML protocols, are meant to provide a standardized, lower-cost alternative to older, traditional electronic commerce systems, such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

IBM joins Liberty Alliance and helps to standardize Web services
IBM announces its membership in the Liberty Alliance, an identity management group working to define standards around federated identity and Web services. Microsoft said it has no plans to join. The Liberty Alliance Project was formed in September 2001 to develop open standards for federated network identity management and identity-based services. Its goals are to ensure interoperability, support privacy, and promote adoption of its specifications, guidelines and best practices. The Alliance is made up of more than 150 members, representing a worldwide cross-section of organizations ranging from educational institutions and government organizations, to service providers and financial institutions, to technology vendors and wireless providers. The Liberty Alliance Project develops open specifications and business guidelines but does not deliver specific products or services. The Alliance's goal is to create specifications that incorporate, leverage and support other Web services industry standards, creating a means for its members and other organizations to build products and services that will interoperate, lower cost of ownership and promote secure federated identity management.