There's a lot of rubbish talked about web services. I won't rehash it, as you've heard it all before,
sometimes from journalists. So let's dive in and clear up some dangerous myths.
The first shock is that web services won't make life simpler. Integration issues will escalate as technical
possibilities develop. Hayward's Technology Problem Law states that, if technology creation is linear,
problem creation is logarithmic. For 'problem' you can also read 'opportunity', by the way.
Second, web services won't 'add' any 'value' to your business. They're just a powerful message transport
system, like the phone network. In-house communication will suddenly become cheaper and easier.
But so what? It's the content of a message that creates business value, not its format, and not the
network. Remember: it's just clever plumbing.
Don't be blinded by Simple Object Access Protocol, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, and
Web Services Description Language. They're just transport mechanisms for XML, the real killer
technology.
It's XML that controls the way businesses will actually understand each other. But it's splintering into
hundreds of industry-specific dialects. Make sure your business helps to control that process by joining
the industry consortia developing XML dialects.
Third, web services aren't a one-way bet; they're actually a big threat for many IT professionals. Pressure
to outsource work will accelerate when routine business functions morph into commoditised bundles that
can be easily farmed out.
IT departments will break up, with routine work sent to EDS and IBM for processing. Make sure that
doesn't include you.
Web services will blight people's careers. Many of your staff will freak out when they realise that
application development is being turned upside down. The new model is more complex and very different
from today's.
Unless your people already understand (and enjoy) component-based programming models - Corba, DCom
and the rest - they'll struggle. When that happens, you'll have to outsource them to IBM to save your own
skin. Be ready for that.
Fourth, web services won't bring 'business' and 'technology' together, at least organisationally. They'll
actually push them apart. Your board will separate the technology sheep from the business goats. Can
you hack it as a business strategist, or at least a competent tactician? Are you ruthless? Maybe you have
a future as a goat, my friend.
The IT manager of the future is a wily character with allegiance only to corporate profitability. He or she is
amoral; a cross between an arms dealer and a mercenary, a wheeler-dealer supplying weapons called
technology services.
Where these weapons come from, who operates them, and what they're used for is irrelevant. What
matters is the money.
If this doesn't sound like you, then welcome to ruminant life. It's not too bad: you'll be in a field with other
sheep, chewing the code all day.
Most of today's IT professionals are going to be sheep, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. As a senior
sheep, you'll get lots of nice code and new meadows to explore. But life is more exciting as a goat.
What's true about the hype? Well, business interaction should genuinely become much easier. Smart use
of web services technology really will transform organisations. Yes, businesses will create new
opportunities for themselves.
New businesses (web service aggregators, for example) will emerge from nowhere. Fortunes will be made
and lost.
It could all be fun, but get ready for trouble. The dotcom bubble was just a failed rehearsal; this time, it's for
real.
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* Origin: [adminz] tech, security, support (192.168.0.2)
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