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Transforming e-business: E-services
HP's Java-based E-speak development framework aids in developing dynamic e-services
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Through a common vocabulary and a published directory of capabilities, e-services can automatically search and locate other e-services to complete a process without human intervention. As a result, e-services increase competition, broaden distribution channels, lower costs through easier outsourcing, and ease the integration efforts required to implement value-added partnerships.
For individual companies, the ability to advertise a service's capabilities to other services, both internal and external to the organization, affords high visibility and a marketplace-style environment for outsourcing that can quickly enhance company offerings, extend the scope of existing assets, and increase revenue.
And since e-services are positioned as unbundled resources rather than all-encompassing applications, they provide a modular, self-contained functionality that can be brought to market quickly and updated readily as business strategy dictates.
Furthermore, e-services make e-business assets more accessible. No longer do customers need to visit a merchant's Website to engage their services. E-services are being created to run on any device, anywhere, each one capable of triggering requests that set into motion a chain reaction of services devoted to a common goal -- in effect, enabling outsourcing on demand.
Many e-services are already cropping up behind the scenes in Web-based applications. For example, UPS's package tracking, MapQuest.com's driving directions, and even some banking and brokerage firms' services are now externally accessible.
Although the benefits of their services-based approach may seem clear-cut, these forerunners of nascent e-services integration confront a common problem: the lack of a universal means of intercommunication among e-services.
Widespread e-services integration will require the implementation of a common framework such as that found in HP's E-speak, which provides a vocabulary and interface that aid in bridging the discovery and communication between disparate applications across the Internet.
Of course, HP is not the only company pushing an e-services framework. In fact, HP faces a tough climb to acceptance, particularly in light of recent announcements of IBM's and Microsoft's joint support of comparable structures such as UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) for facilitating the interaction of e-services.
Under the hood
E-speak provides an open platform for building distributed, open systems for widespread, service-oriented brokering and delivery over the Internet. Based on open standards, E-speak is a framework for development and deployment with many benefits to e-services: introspection and self-registration; advertising of service capabilities; security, protocol, and transport mechanisms; and brokering, management, and monitoring. Together, these capabilities allow one service to autonomously seek out and employ other services.
The E-speak software platform is comprised of a core Java-based Service Engine and a Service Framework Specification (SFS) that together supply a blueprint API for service creation and wrapping. The E-speak network object model supports programming languages like C++ and Java, an XML-based document object model, and compatibility with pervasive object models like CORBA, Enterprise JavaBeans, and DCOM (Distributed Computing Environment), delivering uncompromised deployment independence.
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- For JavaWorld's other product reviews, see the Product Review section of our Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/topicalindex/jw-ti-productreviews.html - HP's E-speak page
http://www.e-speak.hp.com/
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