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By 2005, the aggressive use of Web services will drive a 30 percent increase in the efficiency of IT development projects, according to Gartner research presented this week at Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2001.
One the hottest trends in IT, Web services are software components that interact with one another dynamically via standard Internet technologies, making it possible to build bridges between IT systems that otherwise would require extensive development efforts. One of the tenets of Web services is that systems can advertise the presence of business processes, information or tasks that can be consumed by other systems.
Gartner believes that more than 40 percent of enterprises' first experience with Web services will be an internal deployment of a Web services-enabled architecture. In these implementations, enterprises will begin to realize immediate benefits even before the development of well-behaved Web services (that is, those Web services that do it all — from discovery to transport to environment and event notification: see Gartner Research Note COM-12-7087 "Requirements for Web Services: Terms and Technology").
Web services will offer some business-to-business benefits early on as well, namely by transforming the process through which enterprises make connections with one another. Established trading partners will seek to drive down the costs of interconnection by reducing the energy devoted to maintaining contacts. One way this will eventually happen is when enterprises begin using Web services systems to establish more-efficient connections with new business partners by directing these partners to Web services directory entries.
The financial-services industry will be among the first to adopt Web services, due to this industry's ready-made network of authentication and reputation systems. Other early-adopter industries will include transportation, energy, high-tech and small businesses that have little or no investment in installed software.
Enterprises should experiment with Web services early, and not wait for the perfect implementation. By doing so, they will accrue immediate benefits through improved development practices, less-complex integration projects and changes in the fashions of development strategy.
Analytical Sources: Daryl Plummer, Java Strategies & Technologies; and Whit Andrews, Internet Strategies
Written by Dean Lombardo, gartner.com
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