Application firewalls good enough — for now — for Web services security

While functions such as identity management will become increasingly important, “If somebody can just look at the content of a SOAP message and pick out your credit card number, it doesn’t help much,” says Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst at ZapThink LLC, a Web services research firm in Waltham, Mass.

Read more at: SearchSecurity (TechTarget)

Web Services Inching, Not Bounding, Along

However, standards bodies have been working for more than two years, pointed out Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink LLC (www.zapthink.com), which specializes in tracking Web services. ZapThink estimates that worldwide Web services spending was roughly US$1.8 billion in 2002, but that it should exceed $5 billion next year.

Read more at: SD Times

Microsoft spec invites controversy

“The last thing the industry needs are two different security/ID specifications,” said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst with market researcher ZapThink. Bloomberg and Ron Schmeltzer [sic], also with ZapThink, said that a potential standards rivalry could be hurtful to the industry at large.

“Security is the primary concern of Web services users today,” said Schmeltzer. “If we see proliferation of multiple specifications backed by the big players, it could cause confusion and slow down end user adoption.”

Read more at: CNet

XML shows promise, but …

Gartner predicts that the amount of XML data in corporations will grow from about 2 percent in 2000 to 60 percent by 2004. Exact numbers are hard to come by though, since, as Ronald Schmelzer, analyst for ZapThink, an XML research house, says, “XML is so persuasive that it’s already everywhere. Eventually, it will even be in dishwashers.”

Schmelzer comments that “XML is not very efficient from a processing, network, or storage” standpoint, and that its use is growing. By 2006, he says, XML traffic alone may reach 25% of corporate network traffic.

Read more at: The Register and SD Times

Security experts take safe option and agree

You know when something is really fundamental and important— and not quite working yet- when no vendor wants to rock
the boat. It seemed that we were in such an area at the “Web Services Security — Is It Enough?” panel chaired by Jason Bloomberg
(of analysts Zapthink) at the XML & WebServices 2003 show at Olympia in March (hands up time — the show organisers
are the people behind ADA, but, hey, if it’s interesting it’s interesting). The panel included security experts such as Mark
O’Neil of Vordel, freelance Microsoft authors such as Andy Olsen and, for good measure, Patrick Gannon, OASIS President and CEO — and they all agreed about everything.

Read more at: Application Develpoment Advisor

Web services to offload integration from professional services

As service-oriented architectures utilizing Web services become dominant, companies will increasingly be using professional services organizations less for system integration and more for architectural consulting and business process automation, according to a report from research firm ZapThink announced this week.

Read more at: InfoWorld

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting for Professional Services Organizations

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting Partnership Landscape

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SOA within professional services organizations from three perspectives: from the point of view of the consulting firm, who must understand how its business must change; from the perspective of the enterprise user, who must select and manage a consultant; and from the point of view of software vendors who wish to work with consultants to help them meet the needs of their customers.

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting for Enterprise End-Users

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO