Harvard Cyberposium: Web Services, Security Software Next Big Opportunities

So said a group of technology executives, including former Tivoli CEO Frank Moss, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik and Lycos founder Bob Davis, who gathered for a panel discussion on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School's annual Cyberposium on Friday evening.

While the participants differed on the health of the overall software and hardware markets, opportunities in the emerging Web services market, biometrics and security software as well as bio-informatics, or new methods of drug development, are hot, said Moss, current chairman of Bowstreet, which specializes in the assembly of Web services.

"Standards [in the Web services market have already been developed by Microsoft and IBM," said Moss, referring to standards such as XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), WSDL (Web Services Definition Language)and UDDI (Universal Discovery, Description, and Integration Protocol), and interoperability efforts such as the Web Services Interoperability Organization.

While Linux advocate and Red Hat CEO Szulik took exception to the statement that proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and IBM,and not open-source efforts,will call the shots in the Web services game, he agreed with Moss that security software and biometrics markets are bristling with opportunity.

Szulik identified frequency ID and encryption as key areas within the security software market of the future. "The events of 9/11 have brought this to the forefront," said Szulik. "All [corporate data assets will be tagged; it'll be an interesting market for the next five years."

Lycos' Davis took exception to another statement made by Moss, that the traditional software and hardware markets have become automated, and noted that vendors and new companies can use the Web and wireless technologies to innovate, connect and update legacy systems such as purchasing systems and call centers.

"The Web is an innovation tool," Davis said, adding that digital media will be an "explosive market."

At a packed session held later during the weekend, entitled "The Coming Battle Over Web Services," representatives from Web services platform rivals Sun, Microsoft and IBM indicated that adoption has quietly begun and hinted that the market is poised to explode within the next few years.

Asera Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management Mark Atherton identified British Petroleum and Applied Materials as early adopters of his company's Ebusiness Operating System. Asera, the Belmont, Calif., vendor of a Web services and enterprise application and integration platform, also lists Chemical Giant DSM and Cadence Design Systems among its customers and former Oracle President Ray Lane on its board of directors.

At a panel discussion, Steven Lewis, general manager of Microsoft's .Net platform, pointed to Standard and Poor's as an early adopter and noted that Web services are quickly, if quietly, spreading across major corporations worldwide.

"These guys aren't slouches," said Lewis, who predicted that there will be more than 300,000 Web services in use within the next three years. "Fortune 100 companies are all deploying Web services."