Web services management looks murky

As if the technology behind Web services wasn't confusing enough, Web services management products are coming to market with an equal amount of non-clarity.

Simply put, Web services management is the orchestration of distributed service components to ensure service integrity and performance. Hurwitz Group believes that the Web Service management market will evolve in three stages:

• Phase 1: Component management. For developers using tools like Cape Clear and The Mind Electric to create XML Web services from new or existing code, the challenge is managing the individual components that operate within the service application. Developers can use tools from vendors like Talking Blocks and Infravio to deal with issues like multiple versions of the same service component in production and late binding.
• Phase 2: Service orchestration. Once firms deploy enterprise-wide Web services that must interact with other Web services and applications, vendors like Fuego, GrandCentral, and Flamenco Networks provide solutions to integrate and orchestrate the interaction. What makes this stage different is the level of network understanding that comes into play.
• Phase 3: XML acceleration. Eventually, enterprises will be pushing around enough XML to see performance degradation, because the payload is too much for the application server to handle and may not be resolved with a middleware solution designed for internal integration. At this point, firms will begin to shift critical inter-company transactions to dedicated XML acceleration solutions from vendors like DataPower, Sarvega, and Tarari.