Smart Web Services can take into account who you are, where you are, whom you're with, and what you're doing. Key Content Services-Based Model Beyond Current Services Business Architecture Sidebars Trends Affecting Web Services' Readiness Modern-Day CAD Evolving from Web Services to Smart Services On February 5 of this year, Sun introduced the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE), a "new generation of software for open, smart Web services." (For an overview of the Sun ONE architecture, see "Modern-Day CAD" on See Modern-Day CAD; for detailed information, go to http://www.sun.com/sunone;$sessionid$KT0SZIQAAB3YFAMTA1LU4GQ.) By "smart," Sun means Web services that can take into account not only who you are but also where you are, whom you're with, and what you're doing. In other words, these services factor in time, place, and other contextual elements. "We noticed that no one was concentrating on how Web services could be delivered within the context of who users are, when they require service, how they require it, and so on," says George Paolini, Vice President of Technology, Evangelism, and Marketing at Sun. "Context is the critical distinguishing characteristic," Paolini continues, yet there was "no overarching initiative to try to pull together everything being done around Web services." Paolini notes that the potential for the Web services market is enormous. He points to Forrester Research, which predicts that by 2003, the market for software components used to build services will represent a $14.5 billion industry. Sun refers to this environment as "modern-day CAD [create, assemble, deploy] for the information age" (see "Modern-Day CAD"). Services-Based Model Over the last few years, the software industry has changed dramatically. Rather than purchasing or licensing software to install on a workstation or a PC, users now access services over the Internet. The trend moves software away from monolithic, fat-client-hosted and -maintained applications toward a new development model that is often called "Web services." Initially, "Web services" referred merely to Web-based applications. Consumers of these services could use an application, such as a calendar, that was hosted on and available from the Internet. An example of such an application is the calendar service available from Yahoo. The Java platform was the prominent enabling technology for such scenarios. Today, what's meant by "Web services" is the next level of this trend, which builds on the current server-hosted and -maintained Web-based applications. The idea is that Web services result from software components being spontaneously discovered, combined, and recombined to provide solutions to users' problems and requests. XML is the prominent technology enabler in this phase. (For more on XML, go to "XML Enables Enterprise Web Site Development," Sun has many technologies for a Web services model (including Java and iPlanet) and is leading or participating in many new developments (XML, ebXML, SOAP, UDDI, and others) that make this services-based model work. (For a technical discussion about these and other standards, go to "Software Gurus on Sun ONE,") But even today's definition of Web services falls short, says Hal Stern, Chief Technology Officer, iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, "when it comes to describing how things operate in what we're calling a multinet, or a network of networks." The tendency, Stern continues, is to "think of Web services as taking on pieces of business logic and packaging it and delivering it over the network. What we're trying to do is not just deliver it over the network but also deliver it through the network of networks, through the service grid, and add the appropriate context so we can add a layer of intelligence and start to define value." Sun believes that Web services will evolve into smart services that provide greater value and a richer user experience than the current crop of services. Smart services will be easy to customize and personalize, well beyond today's generic Web services. The addition of context awareness, multinet capabilities, quality of service (meeting user needs with the least amount of user effort), and fully open interfaces will help impart this kind of intelligence. Without such intelligence, Web services will be unable to meet the dynamic demands of consumer and business markets alike. Several factors affect the drive to smart Web services. The key ones are: Moore's Law (Processing Power) Growth in processing power increases at a squared rate, just like a square that is expanding outward. At some point, processing power has to be distributed to keep up with communications growth. Gilder's Law (Connectivity) Growth in connectivity occurs at a cubed rate. Since this growth occurs not in a plane but in multiple dimensions, the volume of possibilities for change increases dramatically. Metcalfe's Law (Network) The value of a network scales as the square of the number of people connected to it. In the case of the Internet, for example, the more people who use it, the more useful it becomes. Decomposition and Drive to Components Creating larger and larger systems maxes out at a certain point, and things must be distributed. Thus, for example, there are millions of personal computers as opposed to just a select few supercomputers. Sedimentation and Consolidation Things that were once features are now anticipated fundamental pieces of a technology. The OS, for example, may now embed applications, and most PCs include a dial-up modem. As technology gets used, the building blocks become more and more useful.

Beyond Current Services

" Sun ONE paints a mosaic of a services-driven network architecture that promises a decoupling of end users from specific physical devices and the creation of a world where end users drive the context. The framework casts a wide net to meld old and new products and concepts. Sun ONE illustrates that Sun should be taken seriously as an infrastructure software competitor--a competitor in deed as well as thought." Evan Quinn Vice President, Application Strategies Hurwitz Group

In order to meet the needs of always-on, mission-critical customers and transcend simple task-specific Web services, the new generation of services must evolve into open, smart offerings that go well beyond current services, most of which offer a simple, specific function, such as weather or traffic information. The real benefits emerge when services are combined and recombined to meet individual users' needs instantaneously. The key elements that will help Web services evolve into "smart" services are

• Dynamic Context
  Alters service behavior based on variables such as user ID, time, place, the nature of the request, usage patterns, or predefined policies such as permissions. For example, during the day, you might want to use your wireless device to find a convenient restaurant for a business meeting (and might be willing to pay a higher price). At night, you might be seeking a better value for a family meal. Your role has changed, and hence, the service fulfillment would automatically change accordingly. Web services, by contrast, have only one context and role.
  
  
• Multinet
  Takes into account that the Web is but one of many networks and works across multiple networks. Today's Web services model is based on executable code that will be addressed via a URL. This model is inherently limited. Open, smart services will rely on IP addressing and operate through interconnecting networks such as Bluetooth or WAP.
  
  
• Openness
  Built on top of open XML protocols and schemas.
  
  
• Quality of Service
  Provides a richer user experience by meeting user needs with the least user investment of time and effort. Smart services will place the burden on the services infrastructure to learn, know, and apply intelligence about users' needs, rather than placing the burden on the users to make conscious, repetitive, time-consuming choices. The amount of time people spend today filling out Web forms will seem trivial when they attempt to wade through a menu of choices via a wireless device while on the road.
  
  

Users are central to Sun's concept of smart services, according to Marge Breya, Chief Marketing Officer, iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, "with a key focus on J2EE, XML, LDAP, and the standards that will emerge around context" as well as server-side software that is required for delivering smart Web services in the enterprise and service-provider environments.

Business Architecture

For Sun, says Stern, making services intelligent involves "moving up the stack from hardware to networking to software. We now need to tackle things from a business perspective and let the business architecture drive the application architecture, which drives the services and product architectures."

Sun started taking a look at where the value has been over time in the network services stack, Stern recalls. "Obviously, a lot of the value was created by the networking players. Cisco, Nortel, and Lucent proved that by being able to play the interoperability game. And that was at the wire level.

"Now we're seeing that we need to be able to address interoperability at the application layer, at the business-to-business layer," he notes. Stern says that delivering business value via network services involves two important aspects. One, he stresses, is the need for context. "Context includes who you are, where you are, your privacy level, your security level, your role in authorizations, your location, your presence, and your profile for your location or your presence," all of which allows the services to be delivered to people in a more intelligent manner.

This is applicable to both B2B and B2C contexts, he says. "There is an incredible amount of context in how businesses talk to each other, because it's more than just one variable. Businesses don't always talk to each other on the basis of price. A lot of times, they talk to each other on the basis of contracts, trading-party agreements, or other things that establish the contextual framework for two businesses to conduct a transaction."

Returning to the "network of networks" theme, Stern notes that conducting transactions over networks involves a huge amount of process coordination. "What Sun has talked about with the net effect has largely been getting networks of networks to talk to each other" and making them easier to manage, he adds.

Stern points out, "Businesses and their customers, suppliers, and partners all have networks; a single business transaction will run mostly through all those networks; and we need to be able to handle the cascaded operations through those networks.

"When we talk to our customers, they tell us about one-to-one marketing, customization and personalization, and multichannel delivery architectures." Those are all parts of context, he notes. "We want to have a way to take all the work that's being done in the industry and tie it together in an architectural framework that will allow us to take advantage of the work that's going on and also deliver this architecture to our customers in the form of products."

At the Sun ONE launch, Sun CEO Scott McNealy explained that three assumptions underlie the concept of smart Web services as represented by Sun ONE:

1. Billions of devices will use these services.
2. The services must be always on.
3. They must be based on open standards, in order to make them "integratable."

"The goal is not to get you on the Internet," McNealy said. "The goal is to get you off the Internet and get everything around you on the Internet."

Reiterating some of these messages is Daryl Plummer, group vice president of Gartner Group. "We are on the cusp of the next generation of computing," says Plummer, "where Web services are going to gain context awareness and be delivered over multienterprise networks--offering new competitive weapons to businesses and enhanced experiences to users.

"There is an opportunity to provide a whole new world of platforms, tools, and architectures that can take Web services to the next level," Plummer concludes.

In terms of creation, assembly, and deployment, the main components of the Sun ONE architecture are as follows. Create Sun ONE service creation tools enable developers to quickly build new Web services while enabling professionals to rapidly assemble those services into personalized user experiences. The two main tools are Sun's Forte for Java and the iPlanet Process Manager. Forte for Java software is designed for the rapid building and combining of software components that can be accessed as services. iPlanet Process Manager is a graphical service creation environment tuned to the needs of business professionals. Assemble The Sun ONE Service Building Blocks are services-ready applications for buying, billing, selling, trading, creating, communicating, scheduling, collaborating, and aggregating via services on the net. The three main Service Building Blocks are iPlanet Communications Solution, iPlanet Commerce Solution, and Sun ONE Webtop software. The Communications Solution features e-mail, calendar, and wireless services as well as the new iPlanet Messaging Server. For online buying, billing, selling, and secure trading, the Commerce Solution includes the new iPlanet MarketMaker to open digital marketplaces. Sun ONE Webtop enables delivery of personal productivity services to any device. Deploy The Sun ONE Service Deployment Engine is based on the open standards of the Internet: Java, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), XML, and UDDI. The products include the Solaris Operating Environment; the iPlanet directory, Web application, integration, and portal servers; and the Java platform. Sun's Hal Stern describes the architecture in terms of tiers. "Essentially our architecture has a few major tiers," he says. "The delivery tier is how we get content to either businesses or consumers and how we operate in the network-of-networks environment. Next comes a service creation, or service container, tier. "Think of this as application and Web servers. That's where J2EE and the Forte tool will live. It's also where we will deal with C++. "Then there is an integration tier," Stern continues, "which is how we talk to the world of systems that already exist and how we integrate them, not just from the data perspective and the XML perspective but also from the process perspective and the time perspective." Sitting underneath all of that is a control and management layer containing directory, security, and policy engines that "provide common management and a common identification framework that has a platform built on hardware and the operating system."