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Web Services: A Manager's Guide

Web Services: A Manager's Guide

by Anne Thomas Manes
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Release Date: June 2003
ISBN: 0321185773
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Book Description

"This book performs a valuable service for managers seeking to harness the business potential of Web services technology. Bringing a real practitioner's experience to the task, Anne carefully walks managers through the fundamentals of Web services technology. She does a superb job of helping managers understand this technology so that they can move with sure footing and avoid potentially harmful stumbles along the way."
--From the Foreword by John Hagel III and John Seely Brown

Written for business and technology managers, Web Services: A Manager's Guide illuminates the potential of Web services for application integration. It describes the essentials of supporting technologies and shows how they can be built into a Web services infrastructure that is high-performance, robust, and cost-effective.

Realistic in approach, this book offers a readable definition of Web services and non-technical explanations of key technologies and standards. The author explores the scenarios and applications that would benefit most from Web services and offers guidelines for making an informed decision about which Web services products are right for your company's needs.

You will find detailed coverage of the following topics:

  • The advantages of Web services over other middleware technologies

  • Various Web services business models, including those used by Google, Kinko's, Amazon, UPS, and T-Mobile

  • The basics of XML, XSLT, SOA, WSDL, UDDI, and SOAP

  • How W3C, OASIS, and WS-I are standardizing technologies and defining guidelines for interoperability

  • Web services standards for security, transactions, and portlets

  • Powerful features of Web services, including dynamic discovery and dynamic binding

  • Using Web services for heterogeneous integration, managing legacy assets, and B2B electronic procurement

  • Web services core products and platforms

  • Evaluating Web services offerings based on such requirements as scalability, extensibility, and security

With this book in hand, you will have a clear understanding of Web services, what the technology can do for your organization, and the direction in which you should be heading. Margin content summaries enable time-constrained managers to locate and absorb needed information quickly. Case studies illustrate the benefits of adopting Web services and also reveal pitfalls to avoid.



0321185773B06042003

Table of Contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Praise for Web Services
  3. Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series
  4. Foreword: Understanding the Power (and Limitations) of Web Services
  5. Preface
    1. Book Outline
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1. The Application Integration Crisis
    1. Hershey's Integration Nightmare
    2. Integration Helps Your Business
    3. All Applications Require Integration
    4. Calculating Return on Investment
    5. Application Integration Is Hard
    6. Approaches to Application Integration
    7. Building Integration Hooks
    8. Exposing Interfaces Across the Network
      1. Middleware Styles
        1. Message-oriented Middleware
        2. RPC-style Middleware
    9. Traditional Middleware Blues
      1. Pervasiveness and Heterogeneity
      2. Total Cost of Ownership
    10. Extending Integration to Work Across the Internet
      1. Using the Internet as an Integration Platform
    11. Using Web Services for Integration
    12. Web Services Have Tactical and Strategic Value
  8. 2. Web Services Basics
    1. What Is a Web Service?
    2. Why Web Services?
    3. Defining “Web” and “Service”
      1. Building Services
    4. Web Evolution
    5. Defining Characteristics of Web Services
    6. Understanding the Scope of Web Services
    7. Web Services Business Models
      1. Google
      2. Kinko's
      3. Amazon
      4. UPS
      5. T-Mobile
      6. Internal Integration
    8. Executive Summary
  9. 3. Web Services Technologies
    1. The Web
      1. The Web Versus Other Networks
    2. XML
      1. XML Schema
      2. XSLT
      3. XML Versus Other Data Representations
    3. SOA
    4. WSDL, UDDI, and SOAP
      1. Description (WSDL)
        1. WSDL Versus Other Description Languages
      2. Advertising and Discovery (UDDI)
        1. UDDI Versus Other Discovery Systems
      3. Communication (SOAP)
      4. Extending SOAP
        1. Securing SOAP Messages
      5. SOAP Versus Other Communication Systems
    5. Other Web Service Technologies
      1. ebXML
    6. Executive Summary
  10. 4. Standardizing Web Services Technologies
    1. The History of SOAP
      1. Challenges with SOAP 1.1
      2. WS-I
      3. W3C and OASIS
    2. The History of WSDL
      1. Challenges with WSDL 1.1
    3. The History of UDDI
      1. UDDI Business Registry
      2. Private UDDI Registries
    4. Programming Standards for Web Services
      1. Java Standards for SOAP
      2. Java Standards for WSDL
      3. Java Standards for UDDI
    5. Executive Summary: Status Check
  11. 5. Advanced Web Services Standards
    1. Web Services Security Standardization Efforts
      1. Confidentiality and Integrity
        1. Encryption
        2. Digital Signatures
        3. Managing Keys and Processing Signatures
      2. Authentication and Authorization
        1. Expressing and Exchanging Security Information in XML
        2. Single Sign-on
        3. Authorization
      3. Using XML Security in Web Services
    2. Web Services Management Standardization Efforts
    3. Transactions, Orchestration, and Choreography
      1. Transactions
      2. Orchestration and Choreography
    4. Reliability
    5. Portlets and Interactive Applications
    6. Other Advanced Efforts
  12. 6. The Promise of Web Services
    1. Web Services Hype
      1. Super-powered PDA
      2. Software-as-a-Service
      3. Dynamic Discovery of Business Partners
      4. Enabling Dynamic Discovery
        1. Domain-specific Industry Standards
    2. Dynamic Binding
    3. What Makes Web Services Special
      1. Web Services Adoption
      2. Clear Benefits
    4. Truth in Hype
  13. 7. When to Use Web Services
    1. Bell Ringers
      1. Heterogeneous Integration
      2. Unknown Client Environment
      3. Multichannel Client Formats
    2. Other Web Services Applications
      1. Point-to-Point Integration
      2. Consolidated View
      3. Managing Legacy Assets
      4. Reducing Duplicative Applications
      5. Managing Portal Initiatives
        1. Collaboration and Information Sharing
      6. B2B Electronic Procurement
      7. Trading Partner Network
      8. Software-as-a-Service
    3. When Not to Use Web Services
    4. Executive Summary
  14. 8. Web Services Infrastructure
    1. Core Products
      1. Web Services Platforms
        1. .NET Versus Java
        2. The .NET Framework
        3. Comparing .NET and Java
        4. Language Support
        5. Vendor and Platform Options
        6. Support for XML and Web Services
        7. Technology Ownership and Management
        8. Integrated Versus Portable, Best-of-Breed Solutions
        9. Web Services Platform Features
        10. Web Services Development and Deployment Tools
        11. Service Development
        12. Building a New Service
        13. Wrapping Existing Applications
        14. Completing the Project
        15. Client Development
        16. Web Services Runtime Architecture
        17. Web Services and Java Application Servers
        18. J2EE or Servlet Engine?
      2. Web Services Management Extensions
        1. Middleware Extensions
        2. Monitoring Frameworks
      3. Infrastructure-Level Web Services
        1. Reliable Network Providers
        2. UDDI Registries
        3. Trust Services
    2. Associated Products
  15. 9. Evaluation Guidelines
    1. Characterizing Your Project
    2. Making the Initial Cut
      1. Language and Operating System
      2. Selecting a Java Platform
      3. Licensing and Support Issues
    3. Evaluating Your Requirements
      1. Performance and Scalability
      2. Standards Support and Interoperability
      3. Extensibility Features
        1. Proxy Interceptors
        2. Message Processing Interceptors
        3. Multiple Transport Support
      4. Security
      5. Tools
        1. Development Tools
        2. Deployment and Administration
    4. UDDI Registries
      1. Platform Considerations
        1. Operating System
        2. Web Services Platform
        3. Data Store
      2. Standards Support
      3. User Interfaces
        1. API Extensions
        2. Visual Interfaces
      4. Administration and Management
        1. Taxonomy Management
      5. Security
    5. Executive Summary
      1. Base Your Selection on Project Requirements
      2. Charting Your Course
  16. A. Web Services Product List
    1. .NET Platform
    2. COM Platform
    3. Portable C and C++ Platforms
    4. Java Platforms
      1. J2EE Platforms
      2. J2SE Platforms
      3. J2ME and KVM Platforms
    5. Other Languages and Platforms
      1. Scripting Languages
      2. Programming Languages
    6. UDDI Registry Servers
      1. Embedded UDDI Registries
      2. Standalone UDDI Registries
  17. B. Requirements Questionnaire
    1. Operating Platform Attributes
    2. Client Platform Attributes
    3. Licensing Requirements
    4. Performance and Scalability Requirements
    5. Extensibility Features
    6. Security Requirements
    7. Developer Preferences
    8. UDDI Requirements
  18. Glossary