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Transcript
NBA 600: Session 25
IT and the General Manager
New Technologies: Web Services
22 April 2003
Daniel Huttenlocher
IT and Your Business
 What should a general manager today
know about information technology?
– IT investment has potential strategic as well as
operational value
– The best IT investments improve products or
services not just reduce costs
• Possible because of rapid IT improvements
• Applies to both internal projects and purchases
– Proposed costs and benefits need to make
business sense
• Takes effort both by IT and business experts
2
What To Do
 An IT-aware general manager should
– Not necessarily be a technology expert
• If an expert, be sure to trust other experts and
to make business not IT motivated decisions
– Actively look for areas where IT could improve
products/services while lowering costs
• Also respond to and evaluate proposals from
others that meet these criteria
– Develop good working relationships with
trusted technology experts
• Partners not support roles
• Mutual education
3
Emerging Technologies
 Investigate some new technologies
– In context of making effective general
management decisions
 Web services receiving a lot of attention
over the past couple years
–
–
–
–
–
–
Many companies racing to deploy
Lots of acronyms: XML, SOAP, …
Software platforms such as J2EE and .net
Pre-existing Web services
Business risks and benefits
Deployment costs
4
What Web Services Are
 Definition of a Web service
– Paraphrased from W3C (w3.org)
• A software system, accessible via the Web, with
interfaces described using XML, accessed by
other software systems using XML-based
messages conveyed by internet protocols
XML response
Service
Requestor
IP Network
Service
Provider
Request
5
Web Site vs. Web Service
 API (Application Programming Interface)
– To be used by other software not a person
– Separates the display/layout from content
• No need to change processing because layout
changes!
 HTML for expressing display of content
whereas XML for content only
HTML response
Client
(Browser)
Network
Server
HTTP request
6
Business Case for Web Services
 Makes your business information
accessible for others to use on their sites
– E.g., Fedex or UPS tracking information on ecommerce Web site
– Can be governed by terms of use and require
authentication/authorization
• E.g., amazon.com only access their shipping info
 Enable your customers to place orders
from their systems
– E.g., large (corporate) customers
– Supply chain integration
7
Risks of Web Services
 Making information accessible to those
outside the firm
– Careful consideration of what access to provide
and to/from whom
– Appropriate authentication and authorization
policies and implementations
 Maturity of underlying technology
– Risks of failure or errors in what become
critical systems
 Not acting and having your competitors
provide better services
8
Some Web Services Offerings
9
Ebay Web Services
 Automation of
–
–
–
–
Listing items
Monitoring auctions
Searching
Feedback
10
Not a Specific Technology
 Web services simply refers to an
architecture in which
– Software systems communicate directly
– Communication uses XML-based messages
over internet protocols
• Can use regular HTTP (Web) server such as
Apache
 Does not require
– Use of higher level standards such as SOAP
and WSDL
– Use of particular implementations such as J2EE
or .net
11
XML
 Simple, extensible text format for
exchange of data
– Intended to enable good description of data
– More of a framework than actual format
• Needs to have “tags” defined by a schema
 Extremely valuable for replacing many
non-standard data exchange formats
– Standard “parsers” convert text to computeraccessible format
– A simple idea that can make data interchange
work better – but not rocket science
12
Basic XML Example
 A simple personnel record, with name,
address, employee number, salary
– “Fields” must be defined in a schema
<employee>
<name><first>Jane</first><last>Doe</last></name>
<address>
<number>14</number><street>Main Street</street>
<city>Ithaca</city><state>NY</state>
<zip>14850</zip>
</address>
<id_number>142996</id_number>
<salary>72,000</salary>
</employee>
13
What XML Gets You
 Great; both systems use XML format
– Analogy: knowing the same language
(grammar, etc.) – saves a lot!
 Still need to know how the systems
communicate
– E.g., using HTTP, SOAP over IIOP, etc.
– Analogy: on the phone, internet, in person, etc.
 Still need to know the vocabulary
– Provided by Schema, but need to know how to
use the resulting data
– Analogy: meaning of special-purpose terms
14
Full Web Services Architecture
Discovery
Agency
Find
(UDDI/WSDL)
Publish
(UDDI/WSDL)
IP Network
Service
Requestor
Interaction
(Using SOAP)
Service
Provider
15
Full Web Services Stack
 Layers involved in full Web services
architecture
– Note the “business issues” from a general IT
architectural perspective
16
SOAP
 An XML-based means of describing
communication between systems
– Works with various network protocols
• E.g., HTTP, SMTP, FTP, RMI/IIOP or proprietary
messaging protocols such as MQSeries
– SOAP intended to standardize description of
what is in a message sent between systems
• Can simply use network protocols directly but
not “self describing”
– Hype often ahead of value with SOAP
• More variation in data than in message format
so more important to use XML for data itself
17
WSDL/UDDI
 XML-based means of describing and
discovering Web services
 Part of the Web services architecture is
that there should be service directories
– Services and descriptions can be looked up
• E.g., find me a package delivery service
– Description involves how to access service and
what messages can be sent
 Powerful vision, but still actively evolving
– Today known which systems will interact with
one another – not highly dynamic
18
Web Services Software
 Two application development frameworks
make easier to deploy Web services
– J2EE from Sun, based on Java
• Also supported by IBM, Oracle and BEA
• Proprietary extensions from each vendor
– .net from Microsoft, based on CLR
• CLR: common language runtime
 Language independent but primarily new
language C# and Visual Basic
• Wide adoption in Microsoft developer community
 In practice, many are using both
19
Recent Study
 Gartner survey from September ’02
– 44 consulting and systems integration firms
– Reported in Information Week, 2/5/03
 Top 3 platforms targeting for Web services
–
–
–
–
58% .net
40% IBM WebSphere (J2EE)
31% Oracle (J2EE)
Sun fourth place
 Survey of 140 companies similar results
– Smaller companies more likely to use .net
– Larger more likely to use J2EE or both
20
What’s Meant by Web Services
 Most companies still using Web services
within the enterprise
– Some starting to offer services to outsiders
• Beyond technology leaders like FedEx, Google,
Amazon, Ebay
 Generally using XML for inter-system
communication over HTTP
 Usage of SOAP and WSDL still low
– In Feb. 2002 was “miniscule”
– Currently around 20% report using at least
one
21
Full Web Services Architecture
Discovery
Agency
Find
(Using WSDL)
Publish
(Using WSDL)
IP Network
Service
Requestor
Interaction
(Using SOAP)
Service
Provider
22
Today’s Web Services Architecture
IP Network
Service
Requestor
Interaction
(Using XML over HTTP)
Service
Provider
23
Management Decisions
 Vendors and platforms
– Unix/Java or Microsoft shop (often both)
• J2EE or .net (or both)
– Currently using
• Other trends driving these choices within firm
 What are potential customers using and
how much influence over their choices
– Or compatibility across vendors
 How far up the Web services stack
– Is minimum for the business purpose
– Is desirable for future compatibility
24