Web services hits the mainstream

Businesses are finally taking web services standards more seriously and are turning experimentation into commercial implementations.

According to research by IDC, services firms are reporting a significant increase in project numbers and complexity.

"Services firms' worldwide web services-related revenue will increase exponentially in 2004 as companies unveil robust pipelines of opportunities," said Sophie Mayo, IDC director of web services implementation services research.

"The attention does not revolve solely around web services anymore. Instead, more eyes are turning toward strategic and long-term decisions around adopting standards-based services-oriented architectures [SOAs]."

Most projects last year revolved around using web services for internal and external integration, but this year IDC predicts that SOA will become a major driver for web services standards adoption in large enterprises.

IDC found this reflected in the packages on offer, with firms selling web SOAs, including consulting, integration, training, support and management, along with web services.

Projects in Europe will also have a major focus on cutting costs, adoption of latest technologies and revenue creation, IDC predicted.