Web Services are by Far One of the Most Pivotal Technologies to Emerge in the Last Decade, According to New Yankee Group Study

NEWS RELEASE - 13 JAN 2003

BOSTON - A new report from the Yankee Group, based on interviews with corporate customers, predicts Web Services have the potential to be second only to the Internet in their importance and impact on corporations and consumers. The report also highlights the results of a separate survey of 1,500 IT professionals worldwide, conducted jointly with Sunbelt Software, Inc. of Clearwater, Fla.

"Mainstream adoption of Web Services is most likely 2 to 3 years away," says report author Laura DiDio, Yankee Group Application Infrastructure & Software Platforms senior analyst. "The reasons are obvious: designing, building and deploying a Web Services architecture will be costly, complex, time-consuming and extremely challenging. And this is at a time when corporations are overwhelmingly cash-constrained and struggling to find IT purchasing dollars for the most basic necessities like new PCs and printers."

The report, "Top Vendors Already Stake Their Claims in Web Services," also reveals that the many components of Web Services complicate matters. There are dueling protocols (22 at last count), devices, and management tools. Of course, the ever-elusive "killer applications" that will spur mainstream market adoption are still very much works in progress.

Adds DiDio, "Also complicating matters is that no one agrees on a definition of just what constitutes Web Services. But make no mistake. Amidst all the hype, confusion, and disagreement over terms and definitions, development of the toolkits and enabling software is going forward. It's being promoted by a group of industry-leading vendors determined to put their stake in this newest networking frontier."

The Yankee Group (www.yankeegroup.com)

The Yankee Group is a global leader in technology research and consulting. Our customers, which include technology vendors and users, benefit from our accurate, reliable, and trusted research, consulting, and personalized one-to-one client interaction covering communications and IT products and services. Now in our fourth decade, the company is headquartered in Boston and maintains offices throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.