HP Pushes Web-Services Management Standard
Tue Jul 22, 3:22 PM ET Add Technology - NewsFactor to My Yahoo!
Jay Wrolstad, www.NewsFactor.com
Hewlett-Packard has announced that it will submit its Web-Services technology to a global standards organization and is calling on other companies to join the effort to create an industry standards-based platform for Web-services management.
HP (NYSE: HPQ - news) said it has offered the company's Web Services Management Framework to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), an international consortium focused on the development and adoption of e-business standards for information exchange.
Strong Support
The framework is supported by a number of IT concerns, including Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL - news), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW - news) and BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS - news), and is designed to deliver specifications for applications developers working on emerging Web services for the enterprise (news - web sites).
Developed by HP with input from key partners, the framework is a platform for managing an array of business resources, such as controlling network access, tracking and measuring service levels, and collecting network usage data.
Developing open standards will drive adoption of Web services by creating a management interface that is domain-, platform- and vendor-neutral, according to HP.
Competing Specs
The framework defines how all IT resources in an adaptive enterprise can expose management information and communicate changes in business processes and IT infrastructure. It can support Sun's J2EE and Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) .NET platforms, among others.
The Web-services management committee at OASIS also is examining other specs by companies that are active in this area, such as IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) and Computer Associates, Yankee Group research director Cameron Haight told NewsFactor.
"The issue at this point is negotiating among the different vendors' perspectives and reaching agreement on a Web-services management standard," said Haight. "HP has offered its thoughts, and others are providing their input. There will likely be some politics involved."
As a major player in the systems management market, HP can exert its leadership in promoting standards, but developing and implementing interoperable products may not be easy, the analyst said. "Standardization typically takes a long time, and companies may start looking at proprietary solutions," he added.
Where Are End Users?
Also, Haight pointed out that no end users -- such as financial services or manufacturing enterprises -- were included in HP's announcement. "Going forward, this is a good move for HP, but they will need both product providers and users on board to make this work."
HP, through its OpenView management software portfolio, has launched technologies that use the Web Services Management Framework for the enterprise, including the OpenView Web Services Management Engine and Application Impact Analysis and Business Impact Analysis technologies.
The Web Services Management Framework 2.0 specification is available for download, at no cost, at the HP Web site. It will be offered to the OASIS WSDM technical committee later this month.
The most common objections to using Web services for building mission-critical business systems is that the underlying set of standards is not yet mature or reliable, said Aberdeen Group analyst Tom Dwyer.
While Web services promises to simplify software integration and lower the overall cost of maintaining more integrated business systems, it remains immature at this point, Dwyer told NewsFactor, and requires early users to fill gaps in strength with costly custom programming.
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