Four leading players on the global IT stage - Sun Microsystems, SAP, BEA Systems and Intalio - have announced the publication of the XML-based Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI).
The WSCI is an XML-based language used to describe the flow of messages exchanged by a Web service in the context of a process. It allows for the description of the observable behaviour of a Web service in a message exchange, by providing elements such as correlation, dynamic participation and exception handling.
"Sun has identified a niche market between current standards and new standards that are still emerging," says Lodewyk de Beer, consultant SEAME (South Europe Middle East Africa) Architecture Strategy Team at Sun Microsystems SA. "With this, we have re-confirmed ourselves to be thought leaders in the Web services environment."
Welcoming the strategic move, Jonathan Pletschke, consulting manager, technology at SAP Africa, says adherence to standards that make integration relatively easy is a critical factor.
"A commitment to standards by vendors such as Sun Microsystems simplifies product installation and management in a heterogeneous environment - unlike those that use proprietary tools resulting in problematic installations. Standards are the only real way to make Web services work," says Pletschke.
"Interoperability of Web services needs to extend beyond basic messaging, and WSCI enables Web services to interact with each other in specified ways, to accomplish the needs of complex business processes," says Richard Green, vice president and general manager, Java & XML Technologies at Sun Microsystems.
"This is a major step forward for the industry and will provide a key piece of technology to support Sun's Java Web services software initiatives."
WSCI describes the flow of messages exchanged by a Web service in a particular process, and also describes the collective message exchange among interacting Web services, thus providing a global view of a complex process involving multiple Web services.
Today's service description languages are adequate for simple information retrieval, such as a stock quote, but they do not provide the rich behavioural detail that describes the role that the service plays as part of a larger, more comprehensive collaboration.
One of the key benefits of WSCI is that it bridges the gap between business process management and Web Services by describing how a Web service can be used as part of a larger, more complex business process. These business processes may reside entirely within the confines of a single company, or span across multiple organisations or companies.
After a public review period, WSCI will be submitted, on a royalty free basis, to an industry standards body.
"BEA believes that a workflow interface language is a key next step in the evolution of the Web services architecture," said David Orchard, W3C Lead and W3C Architecture Group member, BEA Systems. "This work is clear indication of BEA's support for community and other efforts in Web service technology development."
"Intalio is delighted to co-author the WSCI specification with a distinguished group of leading software companies that share the vision of bridging the gap between business process management and Web services. With its strategic participation in WSCI, Intalio builds on its commitment to open standards," said Ismael Ghalimi, Intalio co-founder and chief strategy officer.
"Our collective efforts on the WSCI specification will enable customers to more easily and cost-effectively deploy end-to-end processes across value networks. Intalio will leverage the WSCI specification in its strategic product offerings to help customers reduce process design-to-production cost, control total cost of process ownership, and deliver strategic return on process investment."
The WSCI specification is available royalty free for download from each co-editor's Web site: http://dev2dev.bea.com/techtrack/wsci.jsp; http://www.intalio.com/wsci; http://ifr.sap.com/wsci; http://www.sun.com/software/xml
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