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It's easy to build custom Web services or expose available Web services in packaged applications. The challenges begin when Web services move from the lab into the fray of day-to-day business operations. Without smooth and efficient coordination of people, process and technologies, the Web services are stuck in the lab, or worse, deployed vigilante style. This white paper discusses the three critical Web services deployment issues-security, provisioning connections, and operations. As each is owned by different factions within an enterprise, each can become a "show stopper" to Web services deployment initially, and every time a change must be made.
This white paper will provide five tips for maximizing Web services through effective deployment, and along the way, provide a case study of how each was achieved by Aeroplan, Canada's leading loyalty program and a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada.
Introduction
Forrester Research and Gartner, Inc. forecast that 80 to 90 percent of Fortune 500 enterprises expect to have Web services by 2005. This is only the beginning, however. Web services can become a landscape-changing competitive asset IF they are deployed thoughtfully, securely, and with scalability in mind.
It's easy to build custom Web services or expose available Web services in packaged applications. The challenges begin when Web services move from the lab into the fray of day-to-day business operations. This white paper will expose often-overlooked challenges that occur during Web services deployment into production environments and provide tips and tricks for managing those challenges to maximize the benefits from Web services.
It's Hard to Make Something Easier
Web services are relatively easy to build. Every major development platform provides Web services interfaces and tools, ranging from WebSphere to Microsoft .NET to packaged software applications such as SAP NetWeaver and Siebel. Deploying those easy-to-build Web services, however, is a different story. There are several reasons why:
- The enterprise must align cross-organizational policies, technologies and personnel
- The enterprise must coordinates the necessary policy definitions and approvals from all relevant functional business units that will provision, secure and operate the Web services.
- The enterprise requires visibility into the distributed system to understand usage and traffic patterns and to change policies when necessary.
Without smooth and efficient coordination of people, process and technologies, the Web services are stuck in the lab, or worse, deployed vigilante style.
Their challenges illuminate the three critical Web services deployment issues-security, provisioning connections, and operations. As each is owned by different factions within an enterprise, each can become a "show stopper" to Web services deployment initially, and every time a change must be made.
The enterprise that can systematically address security, provisioning, and operations issues in a repeatable way will successfully launch Web services and build a sustainable competitive advantage. Enterprises that have thoroughly resolved the deployment challenges are generating impressive results.
Tips & Tricks for Deployment Success
The trick with scalable, secure Web services is not the Web services themselves. It's creating a secure deployment infrastructure. The right deployment infrastructure will support your organizational goals, meet your technological needs, and deliver real return on investment for the infrastructure and the Web services.
This white paper will provide five tips for maximizing Web services through effective deployment, and along the way, provide a case study of how each was achieved by Aeroplan, Canada's leading loyalty program and a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada.
Tip - Ensure that your systems minimize the impact of Web services interoperability issues Tip - Implement scalable security from the beginning Tip - Provide operators, system architects, and business units with visibility into transaction traffic Tip - Assure that operations staff can run and scale your Web services Tip - Enable efficient cross-organizational collaboration to change and expand your Web services
Aeroplan's Web Services Story
Aeroplan is Canada's leading loyalty program and a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada. Aeroplan's CEO was committed to growing the business by expanding the universe of the company's rewards redemption partners and redemption options. Competitors' reward programs required long lead times and relied on the use of reward certificates. By enabling members to easily redeem miles for products and services online, in real time. Aeroplan would gain a substantive competitive advantage. Aeroplan hired E-Business architect, Spyros Kattou, to create and launch the supporting technology-cost effectively, supportably, and using Aeroplan's existing mainframe technology.
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