TheArchitect.co.uk - Jorgen Thelin's weblog

Getting the Big Picture on Web Services

My co-workers Felipe Cabrera, Christopher Kurt and Don Box just published a new whitepaper on MSDN that places all the web services specs in the context of the web services architecture. , and tries to help people get their heads around all the various parts of the picture and how everything rolls up into a unified whole based on a consistent set of underlying architectural principles.

An Introduction to the Web Services Architecture and Its Specifications

Summary: This white paper provides an introduction to the Web services architecture. It describes the design principles underlying the architecture and foundational technologies for Web services. Features are described and linked to the specifications that formally define them. This paper also serves as a reference guide to all the specifications in the architecture. (45 printed pages)

The paper aims to help people get their heads around all the various parts of the picture and how everything rolls up into a unified whole based on a consistent set of underlying architectural principles:

The core principles that have driven the design and implementation of the Web service architecture protocols are as follows:

• Message orientation - using only messages to communicate between services and realizing that messages often have a life beyond a given transmission event.
• Protocol composability - avoiding monoliths through the use of infrastructure protocol building blocks that may be used in nearly any combination.
• Autonomous services - allowing endpoints to be independently built, deployed, managed, versioned, and secured.
• Managed transparency - controlling which aspects of an endpoint are (and are not) visible to external services.
• Protocol-based integration - restricting cross-application coupling to wire artifacts only.

It's a must read for anyone involved in any way in web services.