Web services explained

No one explains why web services matter half so well as my client, Wayne Beekman, of Information Concepts. From this month's KM World:

Web services technology is also effective in extending the value of legacy data that may have originally been built for a specific function, not necessarily to share data.

“We never start with a clean piece of paper,” says Wayne Beekman, co-founder of Information Concepts, which builds large-scale custom database applications. “Although we build our applications from scratch, we get most of the data from legacy databases.” Organizations may also build new Web services applications on top of existing applications. For example, Information Concepts worked with an association that wanted to create a Web services framework on top of its legacy applications.

“The original applications can remain untouched,” Beekman continues, “and the Web services framework can be changed as needed.” On security, Beekman points out that any application can be built in a secure or insecure way, and that the developers have options to make sure it’s done correctly. He emphasizes that the same holds true for Web services applications.