Key Technologies For Building Advanced Web Services

Cambridge, Mass., June 10, 2003

Although smart companies are using Web services to improve the way they do
business, firms have even more to gain by changing the way they think about
their infrastructure. According to a new Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq:
FORR) report, CIOs that adopt the discipline of service-oriented architecture
are positioning their firms for better business agility through more advanced
Web services and a tenfold improvement in integration costs. The Forrester
report, "Mastering The Web Services Tier," outlines the five key technologies
in an XML network — the intelligent infrastructure behind a service-oriented
architecture — and describes the future of these technologies.

"Every company needs a cheaper and easier way to give their customers
and suppliers the information and services they need," said Ted Schadler,
principal analyst at Forrester. "It's what the Internet promised but failed
to immediately deliver. While basic Web service technology has helped
tremendously, firms need more. What they need is a full stack of infrastructure
to make it easy to build secure, reliable services that a customer can easily
use."

Service-Oriented Architecture Needs New Infrastructure

A service-based architecture is a discipline that advocates a no-barriers
approach to securely and reliably sharing data in any software application
or platform. Although the architecture itself can't be bought, firms can build
domain-specific XML networks based on service-oriented infrastructure and
shared network services. Why is this approach better? It offers more security
and reliability, more flexibility and control, and more reusability than
today's patchwork approach.

What It Means For Technology Buyers

Today's service-oriented infrastructure landscape looks like a plate of
spaghetti. Although more than 25 vendors are tackling the problem, none offer
a complete solution — and their solutions are incompatible, overlapping, and
often conflicting. According to Forrester, technology buyers have two choices
when building XML networks, both of which start with a strategic commitment
to an application server:

• Build the missing functionality in-house, or
• Buy technology from specialists to quickly plug the gaps.

For firms pursuing option two, Forrester has identified 16 specialists based
on their expertise, funding, and customer base and describes their greatest
competency within the service-oriented infrastructure stack.

What It Means For Vendors

Since no vendor offering is a complete or compatible service-oriented
solution, Forrester predicts that by 2006:

• Service-oriented infrastructure will consolidate down to a few platforms offered by the application platform vendors: BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun. But today, firms should look to specialists like Systinet, The Mind Electric, and Cape Clear.
• Systems management vendors will eventually provide most shared network services, but today firms can deploy products from startups like AmberPoint and Blue Titan.
• Network vendors will ultimately deliver dedicated XML accelerators, but today only startups like DataPower and Sarvega offer XML accelerator appliances to handle XML processing and message-based security.

Forrester Research enables companies to understand the impact of technology on
business. Forrester's WholeView® Research, Strategic Services, and Events help
clients understand how technology change affects their customers, strategy, and
technology investment. In February 2003, Giga Information Group became a wholly
owned subsidiary of Forrester Research, Inc. Giga, through its Giga Advisory,
Giga Consulting®, and Events, provides objective research, pragmatic advice, and
personalized consulting to global IT professionals. Established in 1983,
Forrester is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For additional information,
visit www.forrester.com.