"WS Rupture"

A little history:

1997 : SINO (Sun, IBM, Netscape, Oracle) alliance against Microsoft, came together around J2EE. Java started out as just another programming language, but became more serious as a competitor to Microsoft with J2EE, which made it the leading platform for server-centric Web-facing applications. Ed Roman and Rickard Öberg, “The Technical Benefits of EJB and J2EE Technologies over COM+ and Windows DNA”

2000 : Around version 1.1 of SOAP, IBM started to swing over to Microsoft.
- Don Box, “A Brief History of SOAP”

2002 : Around the W3C WS-Architecture Working Group, and related W3C WGs, Microsoft, IBM and BEA (MIB, or Men In Black) agreed on a prioritized list of WS-Standards, which has become known as WS-*. WS-* then became the lever by which IBM and Microsoft devalued J2EE, which became only one technology behind WS.

Sun, Oracle and Fujitsu banded together to counter the MIB standards with their own variants, for example, WS-Reliability (SOF) vs WS-Reliable Messaging (MIB).

2004 : Microsoft and IBM may be tactical allies, but they remain strategic competitors. How long can their alliance last? What will happen to the WS-* stack if they split?

Some commentators have discerned recent signs of "WS-Rupture":

IBM led the development of WS-Notification, while Microsoft led the directly-competing WS-Eventing spec.

High-level rapprochements have taken place between Microsoft and Sun “Desperate Embrace” – The Economist, April 7, 2004

and between and Microsoft and Oracle. MS, Oracle attempts alliance

The threat of “WS-Rupture” is a good example of why it is dangerous to take permanent sides in standards wars, unless your sole goal is to be acquired by one or other of the principal protagonists.

We believe customers should appreciate a wary and seasoned attitude to software industry enthusiasms and alliances. Choreology aims to provide software that does the job, and will continue to do the job when Web Services are as démodé as VAX VMS.