Web Services Hit Glass Ceiling

NEW YORK -- Complex Web-based systems are gaining momentum and are now widely deployed in the online banking and financial sector. But IT managers here at yesterdays Web Services on Wall Street conference are wary about pushing the technology too far.

A number of vendors, such as Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) have put their weight behind what are known as Web services in an effort to tap into the lucrative financial industry.

However, a number of conference attendees felt that Web services have their limits. IT managers and directors told NDCF that the technology is no panacea for the challenges they face.

”My understanding is that the expectation of performance on the trading floor is substantially higher than what Web services delivers," said one IT director at an investment bank, who asked not to be named.

Specifically, he felt that Web services cannot provide the “millisecond response times” needed in many trading environments.An IT manager from a financial firm, who also preferred to remain anonymous, warned that companies should not get too ambitious with their existing Web services implementations. “If they want to add more features to the system it could affect performance,” he said. “This could stall the system and cause security problems."

At the show, Sun Microsystems was touting Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) technology, which works in conjunction with a Web services infrastructure. This gives users a greater degree of control over transactions, according to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm.

But Sun executive Hal Jespersen (or, to give him his fancy title, Distinguished Engineer) admitted to NDCF there has been plenty of hyperbole around Web services. “The original days of Web services were marked by excessive hype,” he said.

However, he added that Sun is taking a considered approach to its financial customers’ needs through its client services division. “We can help them design what makes sense for them -- we’re not going to ram Web services down their throats,” he said.

Jespersen suggested that another concern cited by IT managers was being addressed. “There are some standards coming out of the standards bodies for faster Web services."The executive also said a number of companies are working on XML acceleration technologies, which should help allay users’ fears.

A number of organizations are developing Web services standards at the moment, although one in particular, the International Organization for Standardization., is looking at how to make Web services technologies run more efficiently over a network.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum