Web services interoperability spec submitted to W3C

Rethink IT, Sept, 2004

A consortium of companies including Microsoft, Sun, IBM, BEA and SAP, has submitted its proposed WS Addressing specification, for promoting interoperability of web applications and services, to the W3C standards body.

The W3C is expected to form a working group to consider the submission as a future standard. WS-Addressing forms a basic building block for web applications to talk to one another. The specification would provide framework for applications to exchange and decipher messages, a key requirement for interoperability.

Lack of interoperability has been one of the key factors in slowing down the uptake of web services, with many important applications unable to exchange data with one another. Interoperability between applications written in .Net and Java2EE, the two main web services frameworks, is hoped to be one of the major benefits of Microsoft's recent technology and licensing deal with Sun.

Sun was a relatively late participant in the WS Addressing process, but the company was ready to drop some of its own addressing proposals once it saw industry consensus around the spec.