Web Services
A web Service can be defined as a
software system designed to support interoperable machine to machine
interaction over a network. It is used primarily as a means for businesses
to communicate with each other and with clients by allowing organizations to
communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems behind the firewall.
Emergence of Web Services
Today’s extremely competitive business world is in desperate need of an efficient means
of communication and information exchange. The field of information technology is also
growing at a fast pace in order to provide much better solutions so that businesses can f
unction more efficiently.
The revolution of computerizing services of companies gave rise to isolated computer systems.
Each company had software developed and customized to its specific needs. However, mergers,
acquisitions, and business growths saw the need to share information stored in these isolated
computer systems. The Internet did solve this problem to some extent but it also opened many
loopholes in security of the owner’s information.
Hence, for better B2B (Business-to-Business) communication, it was required that the systems
must be able to link up and network with each other like an Intranet and grant permissions
through a system other than the Internet.
The Web Services and technologies like RMI, COM, CORBA, EDI, and ebXML provides the solution to
the problem. But Web Service is somewhat special and different from the rest as it is based on
the already existing and well-known HTTP protocol, and uses XML as the base language.
Whereas the technologies like RMI, COM, and CORBA involve a whole learning curve. New technologies
and languages have to be learnt to implement these services. Also, Web Services is based on a set of
standardized rules and specifications, making it more portable. This was not the case with the rest of the technologies.
Component Technologies of Web Services
Consider the following scenario in order to understand the structure of Web Services.
Suppose you need to locate a particular pharmacy store in your area. Then you would certainly not
go out on the road and ask every person you met the way to the store. You might, instead, refer the Web site of
the pharmacy on the Internet. If you knew the pharmacy's Web site, you would look it up directly and find the location
through the store locator link. If not, you would go to a search engine and type out the name of the pharmacy in the language
recognizable by the search engine. After getting the location, you would find the directions to the store, and then go to the store.
Web Services provide for each of these previously described activities.