Generally speaking, Web services are still defined as Web applications that use open standards to interact with one another dynamically across heterogeneous systems. But the manner in which organizations approach and prioritize them is changing.
Users fall into two camps. One group advocates using Web services to build complex internal systems known as enterprise service-oriented architectures (SOAs). The other seeks to use emerging Web technologies in tandem with Web services to create flexible external applications. Their divergent approaches each require different organizational skill sets.
The split began in 2003, when companies such as BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems questioned whether mission-critical systems were possible with Web services as originally defined. Over the next two years, the Web took on new significance as Google's use of advanced techniques and Web services began to get widespread notice.
