W3C finalizes SOAP 1.2 standard

“The key message here is that SOAP has matured,” said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst at ZapThink LLC in Waltham, Mass. “There are not likely to be many additional changes to the standard.”
Although many vendors have committed to support SOAP 1.2, Bloomberg predicted that it will take one or two years for SOAP 1.2 to work its way into products. In the meantime, he said, “vendors and end users are going to be annoyed at times at the fact that there are two [SOAP standards] out there.”

Read more at: ComputerWorld

SOAP 1.2 som standard

Både Tim Barners-Lee som driver W3C og Jason Bloomberg, en markedsanalytiker fra Zapthink, mener SOAP 1.2 er en vellykket og fremtidsrettet protokoll.

Read more at: Hardware.no (Norwegian)

SOAP 1.2 Becomes a Standard

“With all the sturm and drang over the details of some of the newer Web services specifications, it’s always nice to take a moment and reflect upon the fact that yes, core Web Services standards like SOAP are maturing,” said ZapThink Senior Analyst Jason Bloomberg, whose firm researches XML and Web services. “We are making real progress in establishing the ground rules for standards-based computing. It’s time for the industry to take a brief moment to pat itself on the back, and then get back to work.”

Zapthink Senior Analyst Ronald Schmelzer summed up his feeling on the ratification of SOAP 1.2.

Read more at: Internetnews.com

Experts see merit in Microsoft’s choice of OASIS over W3C

While at first glance it may have made sense for Microsoft, IBM and the others to work with the pre-existing group at the W3C, Ron Schmelzer, founder and senior analyst with Waltham, Mass.-based research firm ZapThink LLC, said the W3C’s standards ratification process is lengthy and rigorous.

“OASIS has a much more flexible, community-driven standards process, and a lot of the other core Web services standards are already being hosted by OASIS,” Schmelzer said. Because the long-term success of the Web services movement is directly tied to rapid standards development, he said it makes sense for Microsoft to have submitted its specification to the group that could most quickly ratify it.

Read more at: TechTarget

At your service

We might think that these vendors, who offer products to address just these challenges, are speaking purely out of self-interest, but Waltham, Mass.-based analyst firm ZapThink, which specializes in the XML and Web services market, concurs. In an article in its e-mail newsletter, ZapFlash, senior analysts Ronald Schmelzer and Jason Bloomberg stated, “(In 2002) much of the to-do about Web services was more hype than substance. The fact of the matter is, Web services adoption hit a series of roadblocks in 2002, and more are yet to come . . . IT organizations realized that they had to overcome critical security and management challenges before their Web services implementations would meet broad enterprise needs.”

Read more at: Computer Dealer News

Sun, Oracle Join BPEL Effort

“There’s nothing at all surprising about Sun’s changing their mind, as their software strategy has been rudderless for over a year now. When you put this week’s change of direction in the context of all the zigzags Sun has been making since Web Services got off the ground, it might look like Sun is desperate — and maybe they are,” said ZapThink Senior Analyst Jason Bloomberg.

Read more at: Internetnews.com

W3C Blesses, Proposes SOAP 1.2

ZapThink Senior Analyst Jason Bloomberg cheered the progress of SOAP 1.2.

“The 1.2 version of SOAP cleans up most of the issues and ambiguities with the previous version of SOAP, and may actually be the final version of SOAP, or near to it,” Bloomberg said. “Reaching the final version of a standard as fundamental as SOAP is important to insuring the interoperability promise of the standard, so it’s encouraging that the W3C has made such progress.

ZapThink Senior Analyst Ronald Schmelzer agreed.

Read more at: Internetnews.com

Sun Joins OASIS’ BPEL Committee

Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with Cambridge, Mass., market research firm ZapThink LLC, said Sun’s move “is a very good move for Sun and the industry as a whole. There seems to be consolidation around WSBPEL as the specification of choice for orchestration and choreography, and as such, it makes sense not to split efforts between different standards groups, but rather to coalesce on a single spec. Without this agreement, it will take the wrangling of the WS-I [Web Services Interoperability Organization] to sort this all out.”

Read more at: eWeek

W3C Releases Core Web Services Spec

While industry giants, including Microsoft and IBM, have formed the Web Services Interoperability Organization to settle such issues among vendors, Schmelzer feels addressing them within a standards body is better.

“Solving these issues in the specification definition process is the best route to go,” he said. “The more ambiguities that are removed from the spec early on in the process, the better it will be for companies building products for the spec, and for enterprises implementing them.”

Read more at: InformationWeek

Corel Unwraps Smart Graphics Studio

Some analysts, such as ZapThink Senior Analyst Ronald Schmelzer, see the value in Corel’s Smart Graphics Studio as a unique approach in a sea of Web services strategies geared to link applications together.

Schmelzer told internetnews.com the product combines the descriptive power of XML with the publishing and presentation capabilities of Corel’s flagship product line.

“In essence, by adding SVG to the mix, Corel is focusing on an underserved market: companies and individuals looking to value-add their semi-structured content and structured information by providing potent visualization capabilities on top of their data. Operating somewhere between business intelligence and data aggregation, the Smart Graphics product is filling a void that is unmet by existing vendors,” he said.

Read more at: Internetnews.com