Web Services Program On Tap

Called Web services On WebSphere (WOW), the program lets IBM, solution providers and ISVs constructing Web services for customers share technology and ideas, said Derek Bildfell, director of market development for IBM WebSphere.

WOW is run by an advisory council of 20 companies, Bildfell said. For the most part, they are the original partners IBM tapped in March to spearhead the effort.

IBM and WOW partners jointly market their offerings, and IBM provides training, bi-weekly Webinars and a Web site,www.ibm.com/websphere/wow,to help partners use WebSphere to develop Web services.

IBM also is making changes to products such as WebSphere Application Server 5.0, due in late October, based on feedback from WOW partners, said Devi Gupta, director of marketing at New York-based Prolifics, a solution provider on the advisory council.

"IBM is willing to hear what's missing [in existing products and what can be done to change them," Gupta said. "WebSphere 5.0 does a lot around Web services, and [much of that has come out of people like us contributing our thoughts."

Both Gupta and fellow WOW partner Andrew Sweet, CTO of Austin, Texas-based Perficient, said partners are taking a "practical" approach to Web services, using the technology to solve short-term integration goals for customers.

"What we're seeing [with Web services is integration inside the firewall,using SOAP and WSDL to integrate internal operations," Sweet said. "That makes sense . . . until standards like WS-Security are better defined."