The Evolution of Grids: Services

Web services are increasingly popular standards-based framework for accessing network applications

developed and pushed by the major IT industry players (IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Compact, etc.)
A standard way to describe and discover Web accessible application components
A standard way to connect and interoperate these components
some expect that most, if not all, applications to be packaged as Web services in the future
W3C standardization; Microsoft, IBM, Sun, others
WSDL: Web Services Description Language: Interface Definition Language for Web services
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol: XML-based RPC protocol; common WSDL target
WS-Inspection: Conventions for locating service descriptions
UDDI: Universal Desc., Discovery, & Integration: Directory for Web services

Addresses several missing capabilities in the current Web Services approach (e.g. creating and managing job instances)
Makes the commercial investment in Web services tools – e.g. portal builders, graphical interface toolkits, etc. – available to the scientific community
Will provide for integrating commercial services with scientific and engineering applications and infrastructure
Currently a major thrust at the Global Grid Forum (See OGSI Working Group at www.gridforum.org)