Anne Thomas Manes

There are many compelling reasons to use Web services. It seems as if everyone is at least playing with Web services. Almost every software vendor is building support for Web services into its platforms, languages, and tools. Web services enable any-to-any integration, supporting any programming language, any runtime platform, and any network transport. Technologies such as SOAP and WSDL are simpler to use than traditional integration middleware technologies, and they offer much more flexibility. When combined with domain-specific industry standards, Web services enable unprecedented dynamic interaction. More to the point, they can make it easier for your partners and your customers to do business with you. Best of all, the low cost, pervasiveness, and simplicity of the technology lets your existing staff do more with less. Web services can be used for many types o... (more)

Keynote Panel: Summit on Web Services Standards

Anne Thomas Manes and a panel of industry experts will talk about the new standardization process, and discuss the effectiveness of this process in terms of faster times to market. Join in the discussion with the Chair of the WS-I basic working Group and representatives from industry leading corporations, and gain insights into how this process will impact your technology strategy. Panelists: Chris Ferris (IBM, Chair, WS-I Basic Profile Working Group) Andrew Layman (Senior Program Manager, Microsoft) David Orchard (technical director in BEA Systems' CTO Office, focusing on Web serv... (more)

Identity CrisisPassport may not fill the need for a global identity service

Do you have a .NET Passport identity? You may not realize it, but chances are reasonably high that you do. If you have a HotMail or MSN account, Microsoft assigned a Passport identity to you automatically. Microsoft claims to have more than 160 million users registered in the Passport identity service. Pretty soon you'll need a Passport ID to have any interaction with Microsoft. In December 2001, quite a few gamesters were surprised to discover that their old accounts at the Microsoft Zone gaming site wouldn't work without a Passport ID. Microsoft also requires a Passport ID to jo... (more)

And The Winner is…

I was quite amused by a series of articles talking about the battle between Java and .NET that appeared in mid-January. One article said that Java has a two-to-one lead over .NET based on an informal online poll. Meanwhile, in an article entitled "Outlook: Java tech trends through 2004," Mark Driver at Gartner claimed, "Microsoft's emerging NET platform will continue to garner most of the vision and mind share for Web-services-based development efforts." And in an article entitled, "Enterprise Java Bulks Up," Thomas Murphy of META Group said, "The lack of standards support will n... (more)

SOAP and Security

Based on the number of questions I get on the subject, quite a few people think that SOAP isn't secure. It's a bit hard to answer these questions because SOAP is neither secure nor insecure. It's not within the scope of SOAP to implement security. SOAP is simply a mechanism to package information to send between two applications. Even so, it's easy to secure SOAP messages, and SOAP provides an extensible mechanism that allows you to convey security information in your messages. Security is a complicated topic, so let me start by explaining the basic goals of security when dealin... (more)