Related link: http://www.theregus.com/content/4/26161.html
“Web Services - that’s like so 2001.” Or so it seems, as some of the leading proponents of Web Services claim the “plumbing” is almost done and we can stop talking about this stuff.
The Register is of course renowned for its eager vulture, and Don Box has made a few controversial statements in his day, but there’s definitely food for thought here, with statements from both Microsoft’s Box and IBM’s Robert Sutor, who claims that “for the big picture we’ve only got six to nine months on this.”
Is plumbing really that dull?
Short answer: Yes, with an if, long answer: No, with a but
Cynically they've certainly reached the point on the hype curve where the hype has to move over to something else. It's also in Microsoft's and IBM's best interests to have them perceived as plumbing as both companies are in, or badly want to be in, the enterprise plumbing business.
Microsoft in particular would like web services to be seen as enterprise plumbing. If they can then move them into their OS as always available services it's much easier for them to position themselves as an enterprise OS. "Why buy something from Sun, or use that Linux stuff, and then have to add on all sorts of extras to get web services to work? With Microsoft all that plumbing is built right into the OS, where it should be."
It may also be true that they've reached the point where they can be usefully used and perhaps people need to start looking to do that.