What are the disadvantages to web services?

Since web services are still pretty cutting-edge, they're vastly immature. In fact, although there are open standards-based Web Services, there are also large vendors who offer proprietary solutions, adding murkiness to the already mis-leading, general purpose name Web Services.

What standards are used in web services development?

In addition to the basic platform of XML and http, there are several technologies in development that make up other platform elements including SOAP, ESB, UDDI, WSDL, XLANG/XAML and XKMS. If you are unfamiliar with any of these acronyms, it's very easy to find their definitions using your favorite search engine.

Why are web services the new next big thing?

Since web services bridge communication gaps in platforms, operating systems, languages, and software packages, it's quite attractive technology to embrace. The future vision of web services is akin to hyper-automation. As businesses begin to realize the web application integration possibilities available to them through web service application development, the demand for web service developers specializing in Microsoft's .NET platform and standards-based platforms is growing.

What are Web Services?

Web services are the next generation of web applications. Using standardized XML messaging these modular applications support machine-to-machine interaction over the internet. They are self-describing and self-contained units that can perform anything from a simple database request to complex business processes. Once deployed, the function of a web service is available to other web applications or web services.