Build Web services with enterprise-class reliability, performance, and value

Web services are transforming IT, and represent a powerful new way to reduce cost and drive top-line growth throughout the enterprise. This book takes a no-nonsense view of architecting and constructing enterprise-class Web services and applications. The authors expertly assess the current state of the Web services platform, offering best practices and new architectural patterns for leveraging the advantages of Web services--and mitigating the risks.

• Build Web services and applications that meet enterprise requirements for security, mobility, transactions, QoS, workflow, portlets, management, and more
• Avoid the "bottomless pit" of application rewriting and maintenance overhead
• Architect applications to stay reliable even if some Web services go off-line
• Scale applications to support the inclusion of Web services from multiple partners
• Secure private information within Web services environments
• Develop high-value mobile Web service applications
• Includes a detailed case study

Whether you're an architect, developer, project leader, or manager, this book will help you deliver on the promise of Web services in your real-world enterprise environment.

This book describes the key issues and technologies driving Web Services. It provides thorough coverage of concepts, issues, common problems and their solutions, technologies, and best practices necessary to build production-quality Web Services-based applications. Part 1 outlines the big picture for distributed computing environments. It reviews Web Services standards--such as SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI, highlighting key ideas that recur throughout the book. Building on the fundamentals, Part 2 introduces advanced technologies, including some emerging standards in important areas such as transactioning, security, mobile, and pervasive computing, and wireless environments. Drawing on experiences in developing real world Web Services-based applications, the authors present a set of best practices for application architectures based on this new distributed computing paradigm. Key technologies and recommendations are brought together by building an enterprise-scale Web Services-based application.