NBA 600: Session 25 IT and the General Manager New Technologies: Web Services 22 April 2003 Daniel Huttenlocher

2 IT and Your Business  What should a general manager today know about information technology? –IT investment has potential strategic as well as operational value –The best IT investments improve products or services not just reduce costs Possible because of rapid IT improvements Applies to both internal projects and purchases –Proposed costs and benefits need to make business sense Takes effort both by IT and business experts

3 What To Do  An IT-aware general manager should –Not necessarily be a technology expert If an expert, be sure to trust other experts and to make business not IT motivated decisions –Actively look for areas where IT could improve products/services while lowering costs Also respond to and evaluate proposals from others that meet these criteria –Develop good working relationships with trusted technology experts Partners not support roles Mutual education

4 Emerging Technologies  Investigate some new technologies –In context of making effective general management decisions  Web services receiving a lot of attention over the past couple years –Many companies racing to deploy –Lots of acronyms: XML, SOAP, … –Software platforms such as J2EE and.net –Pre-existing Web services –Business risks and benefits –Deployment costs

5 What Web Services Are  Definition of a Web service –Paraphrased from W3C (w3.org) A software system, accessible via the Web, with interfaces described using XML, accessed by other software systems using XML-based messages conveyed by internet protocols IP Network Request XML response Service Provider Service Requestor

6 Web Site vs. Web Service  API (Application Programming Interface) –To be used by other software not a person –Separates the display/layout from content No need to change processing because layout changes!  HTML for expressing display of content whereas XML for content only Network HTTP request HTML response Server Client (Browser)

7 Business Case for Web Services  Makes your business information accessible for others to use on their sites –E.g., Fedex or UPS tracking information on e- commerce Web site –Can be governed by terms of use and require authentication/authorization E.g., amazon.com only access their shipping info  Enable your customers to place orders from their systems –E.g., large (corporate) customers –Supply chain integration

8 Risks of Web Services  Making information accessible to those outside the firm –Careful consideration of what access to provide and to/from whom –Appropriate authentication and authorization policies and implementations  Maturity of underlying technology –Risks of failure or errors in what become critical systems  Not acting and having your competitors provide better services

9 Some Web Services Offerings

10 Ebay Web Services  Automation of –Listing items –Monitoring auctions –Searching –Feedback

11 Not a Specific Technology  Web services simply refers to an architecture in which –Software systems communicate directly –Communication uses XML-based messages over internet protocols Can use regular HTTP (Web) server such as Apache  Does not require –Use of higher level standards such as SOAP and WSDL –Use of particular implementations such as J2EE or.net

12 XML  Simple, extensible text format for exchange of data –Intended to enable good description of data –More of a framework than actual format Needs to have “tags” defined by a schema  Extremely valuable for replacing many non-standard data exchange formats –Standard “parsers” convert text to computer- accessible format –A simple idea that can make data interchange work better – but not rocket science

13 Basic XML Example  A simple personnel record, with name, address, employee number, salary –“Fields” must be defined in a schema Jane Doe 14 Main Street Ithaca NY ,000

14 What XML Gets You  Great; both systems use XML format –Analogy: knowing the same language (grammar, etc.) – saves a lot!  Still need to know how the systems communicate –E.g., using HTTP, SOAP over IIOP, etc. –Analogy: on the phone, internet, in person, etc.  Still need to know the vocabulary –Provided by Schema, but need to know how to use the resulting data –Analogy: meaning of special-purpose terms

15 Full Web Services Architecture IP Network Discovery Agency Service Provider Service Requestor Interaction (Using SOAP) Publish (UDDI/WSDL) Find (UDDI/WSDL)

16 Full Web Services Stack  Layers involved in full Web services architecture –Note the “business issues” from a general IT architectural perspective

17 SOAP  An XML-based means of describing communication between systems –Works with various network protocols E.g., HTTP, SMTP, FTP, RMI/IIOP or proprietary messaging protocols such as MQSeries –SOAP intended to standardize description of what is in a message sent between systems Can simply use network protocols directly but not “self describing” –Hype often ahead of value with SOAP More variation in data than in message format so more important to use XML for data itself

18 WSDL/UDDI  XML-based means of describing and discovering Web services  Part of the Web services architecture is that there should be service directories –Services and descriptions can be looked up E.g., find me a package delivery service –Description involves how to access service and what messages can be sent  Powerful vision, but still actively evolving –Today known which systems will interact with one another – not highly dynamic

19 Web Services Software  Two application development frameworks make easier to deploy Web services –J2EE from Sun, based on Java Also supported by IBM, Oracle and BEA Proprietary extensions from each vendor –.net from Microsoft, based on CLR CLR: common language runtime Language independent but primarily new language C# and Visual Basic Wide adoption in Microsoft developer community  In practice, many are using both

20 Recent Study  Gartner survey from September ’02 –44 consulting and systems integration firms –Reported in Information Week, 2/5/03  Top 3 platforms targeting for Web services –58%.net –40% IBM WebSphere (J2EE) –31% Oracle (J2EE) –Sun fourth place  Survey of 140 companies similar results –Smaller companies more likely to use.net –Larger more likely to use J2EE or both

21 What’s Meant by Web Services  Most companies still using Web services within the enterprise –Some starting to offer services to outsiders Beyond technology leaders like FedEx, Google, Amazon, Ebay  Generally using XML for inter-system communication over HTTP  Usage of SOAP and WSDL still low –In Feb was “miniscule” –Currently around 20% report using at least one

22 Full Web Services Architecture IP Network Discovery Agency Service Provider Service Requestor Interaction (Using SOAP) Publish (Using WSDL) Find (Using WSDL)

23 Today’s Web Services Architecture IP Network Service Provider Service Requestor Interaction (Using XML over HTTP)

24 Management Decisions  Vendors and platforms –Unix/Java or Microsoft shop (often both) J2EE or.net (or both) –Currently using Other trends driving these choices within firm  What are potential customers using and how much influence over their choices –Or compatibility across vendors  How far up the Web services stack –Is minimum for the business purpose –Is desirable for future compatibility