BT web services offer under fire

BT wants to offer its services as a 'trusted broker' for enterprises considering web services projects, but analysts have questioned the telco's credentials and suggest that BT may see little demand.

From January, BT will offer a managed Java 2 Enterprise Edition or .Net web services deployment environment, starting at £20,000 per month, for companies to test proof-of-concept projects.

The telco said that it has spent £10m in the past 18 months learning and implementing web services. It hopes to attract companies on a managed service basis when they are ready for full-scale implementations.

"Our aim is to make web services a practical reality for companies by bringing together the best in the world," explained Andy Green, chief executive at BT Wholesale.

The firm claims to have 300 staff with experience on web services projects, which Green said was "more than most".

BT's offering includes a Web Services Management Layer tool for security and performance monitoring, available from January, and a Web Services Application Component Library of reusable components from BT and third-party software firms.

But analysts have pointed out that BT's offering may be neither timely nor relevant.

Neil Ward-Dutton, research director at Ovum, told vnunet.com: "BT wants to show that it is not just a telecoms company and that it understands the future of data services.

"But it is unlikely to see huge demand in the short term as there is plenty of scope for businesses to trial web services within their own firewalls."

Also speaking to vnunet.com, Alan Lawson, research analyst at Butler Group, said: "It's a nice bandwagon that it's climbing on, but other companies have a lot more credibility in this area. Independent software vendors are needed, but not service providers.

"There is a huge amount of development needed to make external web services secure. It is too much for any one vendor, service provider or even standards body.

"Right now, it is just not safe to run web services on anything other than internal, secured networks. And if you're doing it internally, why do you need BT?"

The analyst advised firms interested in developing proof-of-concept projects to work with "vendors with resources behind them", such as Microsoft, IBM and BEA. "In time, the channel will also be essential," he said.

But Ward-Dutton admitted that BT did have a role to play and advised companies interested in testing web services with business partners to "talk to BT, but to be cautious".