.NET Adds More Web Services Buzz

Web services, the much-heralded and hyped concept that promises to change Internet communications, got another boost last month as Microsoft (Redmond, WA) rolled out two major components in its .NET strategy—Visual Studio.NET and the .NET Framework, the application development tool and platform for .NET applications.

But Microsoft is not the only company that has chimed in on Web services. Two other big technology providers—Sun Microsystems (Palo Alto, CA) and IBM (Armonk, BY)—have their own visions of how to approach Web services, Sun with Sun ONE and IBM with WebSphere.

No-Jargon Web Services

To cut though the hype, Web services are applications that are able to talk to each other regardless of organizational or technological boundaries. However, "all of the visions of Web services depend upon XML," says Steven Etzler, co-founder and managing partner at Business Development Institute LLC (BDI, Red Bank, NJ), a membership and services organization that provides business development and strategic alliance methodology tools. "XML is the glue that holds everything together."

Leveraging XML, Web services—in theory—should make it easier for companies to conduct B2B transactions. "The big players"—Sun, IBM, Microsoft—"have come up with visions to get companies to buy into Web services," says Jamie Bisker, director, financial services, TowerGroup, (Needham, MA). "The benefits of Web services will eventually be realized by insurance companies."

In fact, some insurers have already benefited from developing off the beta-version of .NET. "The time to market was fantastic," says William Oakley, CTO, John Hancock Financial Services (Boston, $127.8 billion in assets), which developed a new online illustration and in-force management system called eHansel using .Net Framework and Visual Studio .Net. "We couldn't have done it without .NET. It made the process of communicating between the browser and the back-end much easier."

However given the siege that most IT budgets have been subjected to over the past year, even examples of success may not be enough to convince companies to invest heavily in a new development environment, warns Patrick McCarthy, manager, financial services, at New York-based Arc Partners. ".NET will be a giant migration issue for insurers," he says. "There has to be a strong argument to do it. Also, there has to be a strong economic reason, too."

John Hancock, in fact, is not moving to .NET, despite its success with eHansel. "We are talking about using .NET across the organization, but there are limited development dollars available," Oakley explains. "We spent millions on Sun Microsystems' iPLanet. To retool our entire Java development environment to .NET would be very hard and very costly."

Despite strapped budgets, the hype about Web services and .NET is creating talk, says BDI's Etzler. "Analysts have said that Sun ONE and .NET are competing for the mindshare of corporate America," he says. "Most shops are using J2EE," Sun ONE's underlying standard. "However, the buzz around .NET is causing a mindshare shift."

Extending Legacy to the Web

Josh Lee, Microsoft's global technical strategist, insurance enterprise and partner group, says that .NET is much more than hype. "Seventy percent of insurance applications are written in Cobol," he says. "That is a lot of intellectual property that can't be thrown away. .NET can extend the Cobol functionality over the Internet."

.NET, Lee says, is not only a less-expensive alternative than other architectures that promise the same results, but it "is much easier to use and can get things done much faster."

A competitive perspective was offered by Sun Microsystems' Blake Connell, group product marketing manager, Sun ONE (Open Net Environment), who says Sun ONE focuses on more than Web services. "Sun ONE is about services on demand, or getting information to people anywhere, anytime," Connell says. "Sun is not fixated on Web services, but Web services are part of Sun ONE's vision." A focus on standards—including e-business XML (EB-XML), J2EE, IMAP and ICAL—is part of what makes Sun ONE unique, he adds.

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio