Interest in Web services waxes and wanes

Depending on your frame of reference, it wasn't that long ago that Web services was an IT buzz word bantered about but little understooda lot more hooplah than moolah, so to speak. Just how long ago? We did some digging to see when Web services started making waves and, at least in the analyst community,we found two milestones -- Gartner formed their first Web Services Team of analysts in May 2001, and went on to refer to the platform as a rising IT star in March 2002.

It's been a few years now, so where is Web services in the minds of IT pros? We turned to BT Trax for a reality check. Looking at the chartwe see that interest in Web services ebbs and flows with some periodicity. Here are the news events that spiked interest over the last 12 months:

May 2004: News about BEA's Liquid Computing and Microsoft's demonstration of ID Federation drove the interest meter to the highest point over the past year

October 2004: Astory questioning the "simplicity" of Web services boosted news interest to its Q4 peak, highlighting the conflict between adherents of advanced Web services specifications and those who just want to keep it simple.

February 2005: Microsoft piqued some interest among our audience with a preview of their new Indigo technology, which is the companys "preferred shade for Web services."

These daysthe broader concept of SOA, or service oriented architecture,has stripped mostof the limelight away from the promise of what Web services can do for business.