Top Ten Web Services Interoperability Predictions for 2005

As we head in to the New Year, I thought it would be fun to put together some of my predictions for Web Services Interoperability in 2005. In no particular order, here they are:

Popularity of "Contract-First" Web Service design will increase

Thanks to emerging community tools such as Christian's WSCF and IDE enhancements, developers will be given more options for designing Web Services using Contract and Data First approaches.

Basic Web Services Interoperability between .NET and IBM WebSphere / BEA WebLogic will become near seamless

Both IBM and BEA are touted to release new versions of WebSphere and WebLogic in 2005. Interoperability using Web Services works well with today's versions, but I expect it to get even better with these new releases.

IBM will support OASIS WS-Security 1.0

Rumor has it that this will appear in v6.0 of WebSphere Application Developer (WSAD), but I believe customer demand will force some kind of retrofit to 5.1.x.

Indigo will further encourage developers to build interoperable applications

Excitement and buzz around Indigo in 2005 will put interoperability at the forefront of developer’s and architect’s minds, especially in the early samples that will appear during the year.

WS-Security Interop will just keep getting better

Lot's of activity here in late 2004, but Interop is still somewhat limited to X.509 between platforms. Continued Interop support for WS-Security in 2005, and we'll also start to see new tools to make configuration and management a little easier.

WS-RM Interop will be a reality

Implementations in Indigo and other 3rd parties will make WS-RM Interop more than just specs. I expect to see this being demo'ed heavily at conferences during the year.

Attachments and Web Services Interop using MTOM will gain acceptance

Directions and plans of sending attachments securely over transport independent Web Services will become clearer. Vendors will commit and make announcements around MTOM during the year.

WS-Policy will be supported by more vendors

At least one major vendor (apart from Microsoft) will support WS-Security configuration using WS-Policy in a shipping product by year's end.

Web Services will become more transport independent

We'll see more implementations, samples and articles of Web Services running over protocols other than HTTP. 

A book on Web Services Interop will hit the shelves

We'll see at least another book on Interop ;-)