Lizzie,
Web Services
Industry Leaders Drive Convergence, Publish Web Services Specifications to Coordinate Business Applications
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08:32 a.m. 07/28/2003
Arjuna Technologies, Fujitsu Software, IONA, Oracle and Sun Microsystems Open Development with Imminent Standardization of Specification Framework
WALTHAM, Mass., Jul 28, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Arjuna Technologies Limited, Fujitsu Software, IONA Technologies PLC, Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems today announced the publication of the Web Services Composite Applications Framework (WS-CAF).
The Web Services Composite Application Framework is a collection of three specifications -- Web Service Context (WS-CTX), Web Service Coordination Framework (WS-CF), and Web Service Transaction Management (WS-TXM) - designed to solve problems that arise when multiple Web services are used in combination ("composite applications") to support information sharing and transaction processing.
WS-CAF and Transaction Processing
Transaction processing (TP) is the core of commerce. Some transactions are very simple, such as purchasing a book or transferring funds, and can be processed immediately. Other transactions are more complex, such as fulfilling a purchase order or completing an insurance claim, and may take days or even years to process. All businesses rely on the concept of a transaction, but have built upon the concept through various architectures, which limits interoperability and creates multiple 'islands' of mutually incompatible TP networks.
WS-CAF solves the TP information management and sharing problem by defining an open, multi-level framework for standard coordination of long-running business processes across multiple, incompatible transaction processing models and architectures.
The authors plan to donate WS-CAF to a recognized industry standards organization soon under royalty-free licensing terms. This effort will lead the industry to converge on effective solutions through an open standards organization with proven development processes. Solutions developed this way are more likely to be reliable, interoperable and immediately useful to a large audience.
"User organizations are increasingly looking towards composite applications formed from multiple Web services to foster reuse and allow for the rapid delivery of new business services," said Stephen O'Grady, analyst at RedMonk. "WS-CAF is a response to that interest."
The Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) is comprised of three specifications:
WS-CAF does not require the implementation of a new transaction protocol. The WS-CAF framework can use any transaction protocol in place of, or in addition to, the neutral protocols defined for WS-TXM, such as the OASIS Business Transactions Protocol. WS-CAF supports implementations of part or the entire framework, allowing users to leverage existing infrastructure commitments and investments. WS-CAF is compatible with other related specifications.
"Arjuna has always been committed to driving open standards for transaction processing and Web services for the benefit of our customers," said David Ingham, CTO at Arjuna Technologies. "WS-CAF, which we will shortly be donating to a recognised standards organization on a royalty free basis, provides standardized approaches to context propagation, coordination, and transaction management and offers significant improvements over the state of the art in terms of its layered approach. Customers require open standards and as specialist suppliers of middleware technology for reliable systems, Arjuna will add support for WS-CAF in our Web service transactioning product."
"Standards are very important for interoperability in our industry. Fujitsu has always been a strong advocate for open standards. We see the standardization of context management, cooperation, and transactions through Web Services as key to the next step in effective application integration,"said Shizuo Inagaki, President of Fujitsu Software Corporation.
"The use of Web services as part of long-running business process scenarios is limited today due to the lack of interoperability across system-level functions," said Eric Newcomer, CTO at IONA and WS-CAF co-author. "WS-CAF addresses the underlying issues of Web service context propagation and transaction management to provide an open, flexible framework that expands the scope, usability, and reliability of Web services for business process automation across multiple architectures, applications and organizations."
"Recently, a number of Web services specifications have emerged to address enterprise requirements such as security, reliability, and orchestration. While all of these require some underlying coordination mechanism, the design and interfaces for these features have not been addressed in a uniform manner, resulting in duplicated effort and serious interoperability problems," said Don Deutsch, Vice President of Standards Strategy and Architecture for Oracle Corporation. "The Web Services Composite Application Framework, which we soon will be submitting to a recognized standards organization on royalty-free terms, provides a common and open framework for context and transaction management that enables other Web services specifications to function effectively in an interoperable manner."
"Developers are rapidly moving from building basic services to developing more complex business applications, where the need for the Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) becomes much greater," said Mark Bauhaus, vice president of Java Web Services at Sun Microsystems. "Sun is committed to driving the evolution of this important set of Web services specifications in a recognized, open standards forum."
The Web Services - Composite Applications Framework specifications (WS-CAF) can be found at the URL's listed below:
Arjuna Technologies Ltd. -
Fujitsu Software -
IONA Technologies PLC -
Oracle Corporation -
Sun Microsystems - |
