Web services unite tech giants ... somewhat

Companies that for the most part have agreed to disagree appear to be making an exception when it comes to Web services, an emerging computing model that seems to be changing its definition as fast as it gathers new support. While they engaged in some of the usual corporate head-butting, representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and IBM found time for moments of accord during a panel discussion at Partech International's Web Services Conference here Thursday. At the heart of their agreement was a set of technology standards that the rivals agree will be central to the next stage of Internet computing. Still largely a concept, Web services describes a computing model in which information can be pulled together over the Internet from a variety of sources and assembled, on the fly, into services that are useful to businesses and consumers. In some cases the information being accessed is itself a kind of service, becoming a building-block component such as a shared online calendar that can be integrated into a larger service offering. Dollar Rent-a-Car, for example, is working to employ the concept by designing a system that allows it to access insurance services and other applications over the Internet from third-party providers, thus streamlining the process of renting cars, according to Larry Zucker, the company's executive director of application development, who gave a keynote address here. In order for the Web services model to work, however, different types of computers will need to communicate with each other over the Web regardless of their underlying software and hardware. Because of that, the industry's habit of building products and technologies using competing standards won't work -- something the major IT vendors appear to be realizing, observers here said.