Web Services have gone from concept to reality in record time. Recognized as an ideal standardized mode for connecting data, systems and people on disparate platforms and database systems between multiple companies and time-zones, Web Services is a technology that’s clearly ready for prime time in 2004. This is due in no small part to the presence of major IT players now offering sophisticated Web Services environments, including IBM (WebSphere), Microsoft (.NET) and BEA (WebLogic).

The collective marketing and development muscle of these industry giants, plus the contributions of a host of smaller companies and divisions (like SilverStream Software, now owned by Novell), have combined to boost Web Services across the chasm from Early Adopter stage well towards that of a Mature Technology. Another sure sign of success is that virtually all of the major IT industry analyst firms have assigned senior analysts to Web Services practices of one sort or another.

This rapid market acceptance has been further fueled by the parallel movement to real-time and right-time solutions among enterprise IT departments over the past two years. While some of the largest players in many industries have led the charge, their competitors have rapidly followed suit to avoid being left at a competitive disadvantage. And Web Services provides an ideal solution to enable real-time data and application sharing both within and beyond enterprise firewalls.

That said, Web Services are still in their infancy in many respects. As with so many new technologies over the years, many of the IT departments that began implementing Web Services chose to “roll their own” rather than wait for vendors to perfect complete turnkey systems that could be plugged easily into data warehouse or enterprise application environments. And that’s perfectly acceptable, because such new standards-based technologies are by definition easily customized and applied in a modular manner, depending on specific requirements.

In many respects, Web Services are like the children’s LEGO construction toy from Denmark with its standardized size holes and pegs in thousands of molded plastic elements that are easily snapped together to form a myriad of structures and characters. Web Services elements, built via XML and Java bean standards, provide the same means of construction, allowing a network of standardized, interconnecting pipes through which data and applications can be transmitted quickly and easily.