Web services a decade away (News.com):
Tight IT budgets mean that Web services are being used merely as integration tools, said IDC, noting that “most of the Web services vision is just pure speculation.”
IDC argues that delivering software as a service will require a lot of components and applications that don’t yet exist. In addition, “the sharing of components and data required by the Web services vision will raise a number of difficult business, legal and contractual issues,” said IDC.
For Web services to work as imagined, IDC said, technology hurdles must be the first challenges overcome, but businesses also will have to change the way they view software and intellectual property rights. Proponents of the Web services vision also face work in the areas of security, standards and privacy.
The early adopters of web services can be companies in emerging markets, with little or no existing legacy of software. This helps them “leapfrog” – it is a theme I am writing about in this week’s Tech Talk series.
