web services business models
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Web Services Business Models. Web Services Business Models. To explore the infrastructure though which Web service providers deliver their services. To discuss service-level agreements (SLAs) and how they help ensure the quality of Web services. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Web Services Business Models
Web Services Business Models
To explore the infrastructure though which Web service providers deliver their services.
To discuss service-level agreements (SLAs) and how they help ensure the quality of Web services.
To introduce payment mechanisms for Web services, and to discuss available bil1ing solutions.
To examine service-to-consumer (S2C), service-to business (S2B) and service-to-employee (S2E) Web services, and to provide examples of each.
To examine Web services registries, brokerages and networks, and to provide examples of each.
Web Services Business Models
It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises-but only performance is reality. Harold S. Green
To be of true service I must know two things: his need, my capacity. Nikita Nikolayevich Panin
Introduction
For Web services to reach their potential in the business world, companies must establish plans how services are marketed, distributed, paid for and
managed
Going to introduce frameworks for providing business-grade Web services including who the key players are how they interact to facilitate Web services transactions Two important aspects of these models
service-level agreements payment mechanisms
Frameworks for Delivering Web Services Web services technologies can create new
business opportunities For software vendors, Web services
represent a new method of distributing their products
develop software applications in house to fill corporate needs, such as supply-chain management, human-resources admin istration or inventory control
Frameworks for Delivering Web Services Enhance their business models and increase
revenue by packaging their business processes as Web services, then marketing the services to other companies that require similar functionality
Need new business and possible frameworks though which businesses can create, distribute, sell and use Web services
Service-Oriented Architecture
Created by IBM A generic model describing service
collaboration Comprises relationships among three entities:
a Web service provider, a Web service requester a Web service broker
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service provider A server or system that makes a Web service
available over a network, such as the Internet. Achieves this through a service interface
a software component that enables other applications to access the service
Publishes the service to a service broker after creating a service interface
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service broker A networked server or system that maintains a directory or
clearinghouse for Web services Act as liaisons between service providers and service
requesters communicate with service requesters and direct them to
appropriate service providers E.g.,
the operators of the public UDDI Business Registry (UBR) offering information about service providers and their available
Web services. Web services brokerages and portals
aggregate Web services targeted to a specific industry
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service requester A networked server or system that accesses
and employs a Web service Interacts with a service broker to find a Web
service that fills a specific computing need
Service-Oriented Architecture
E.g., companies that aggregate content communicate with a variety of data sources to amass information and present it to customers.
yahoo.com or msn.com rely heavily on combining information from multiple sources
•Although the provider, requester and broker technically are computing systems, we use the terms more generally to refer to the individuals or businesses that manage those systems.
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service aggregation a newer concept referring to businesses that
combine electronic services to provide a single, more comprehensive service to customers
E.g., a company offers a composite service for automobile owners combining features such as on-demand directions, roadside assistance, online concierge and stolen vehicle tracking
Service Provider
A service provider can be any organization that creates or hosts software and wants to make that software available over a network. For example, Application service providers (ASPs)
ASPs already possess infrastructure Independent software vendors (ISVs)
Company that specialize in the development and sale of software
Not directly associated with a specific platform might become Web service providers
Companies create Web services available only within their organizations or to trusted business partners
Service Provider
Not necessarily the creator of the services May employ a third party to host and maintain the
services the hosting entity is the Web service provider
it manages the computing system on which the service resides
The creator of the service is called the asset owner If a company both develops and hosts a Web service,
that company is both the service provider and the asset owner
Stages of Web Service Development and Deployment
Discuss the tasks that comprise the Web service development process, from generating an idea for a service to actually deploying and selling that service
Web Service Business Lifecycle
Four stages: creation, publication, promotion and sale
Creation
Creation includes the initial construction of the Web service the steps required to prove that the service
operates correctly
Designer Developer assemble documentation
test
Creation Stage
Creation
Creation Testing Organizations that develop Web services can
test them in house. However, an independent third party that
specializes in the assessment of Web services functionality and interoperability should administer the tests and provide a form of certification
No standard testing procedures now Should be crucial to Web services development
Creation
The final step Creation process is handled by a distributor Can be either the same as or separate from the
service's owners Package all the code and documentation relating to the
Web service in a format that can be understood and used by other applications
Make decisions regarding the publication of the Web service
Exposing all necessary pieces of a Web service on a network
Can outsource these tasks ASPs, ISPs, and Web-hosting companies are the
most obvious choices to host Web services
Promotion
Third parties must enable service requesters to locate the service
Carried out by brokers public UDDI registries
the UDDI Business Registry (UBR) private registries
promote Web services available within an organization or among partners
www.xmethods.net and www.salcentral.com have created their own Web services directories
Sale of Services
Two main anticipants a company or organization that manages Web
services accounts can be the entity that hosts the service or a
separate organization that specializes in billing Web service auditor
an individual or organization responsible for reviewing the functionality of Web services
service provider might ask an auditor to reevaluate the service on a regular basis
Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)
Legal contracts in which a service provider outlines the level of service it guarantees for a specific Web service
SLAs cover a specific time period, after which the agreements must be renegotiated
When customers purchase Web service subscriptions, their subscriptions guarantee service according the contents of the SLA
Service-Level Agreements
Most SLAs define relationships between Web service providers and requesters Delineate the requester's needs goals with regard to the service the capabilities of the provider to meet those requireme
nts
In SLAs between developers and providers the developer specifies the capabilities of the service the provider outlines the level of service it will provide t
o the service's requesters
Service-Level Agreements
An important function of SLAs is to address quality of service (QoS), which refers to the level of service that a particular Web service provides
QoS is defined by factors such as the probability that a service can respond to a
request at a given time, how well a service executes its tasks, how quickly a service works how reliable and secure it is Etc.
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Availability Describes the probability that a Web
service is ready for use (i.e., available) Measured as a percentage E.g., a Web service might be available to
service requesters 99.99 percent of the time.
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Accessibility Describes the group of users that can
access a service, as well as how difficult it is to access the service
For example, a Web service that supports multiple languages (such as Spanish, Japanese, etc.) would more accessible than a Web service that supports only English
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Integrity Describes the probability with which a servi
ce performs its tasks in the exact manner described in the service's WSDL document or service-Ievel agreement (SLA)
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Performance comprised of two main factors: throughput
and latency Throughput
Represents the number of requests that a Web service processes in a given time period
latency Represents the length of time that the service
takes to respond to each request
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Reliability Describes the ability of a Web service to
function correctly and provide consistent service, even in the event of a system or network failure
Also encompasses procedures for data backup and redundancy
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Conformance to standards Describes whether a Web service employs
the specific standards and implementations Service providers must adhere to standard
s agreed upon in SLAs otherwise, requesters might not be able to acce
ss the services
SLAs stipulate QoS requirements
Security involves technologies and processes such as
authentication, message encryption and digital signatures
An SLA defines the amount of security that a particular Web service requires, and the service provider then must maintain that level of security
Importance of SLAs
SLAs are crucial to the success of the Web services industry Web service customers must be able to trust t
hat services will adhere to certain quality-of-service requirements
Help ensure the reliability of a Web service Include information regarding liability
If a deficiency in service impacts the requester's business, the provider is legally responsible to compensate the requester.
Importance of SLAs
However, even with SLAs in place, quality of service is not guaranteed. Service providers still might not honor their co
ntracts providers know that the cost of litigation often is f
ar greater than the cost of switching to another provider
Web Services Payment Models
Web Services Payment Models
Free Charge
Most publicly available Web services are free It is important that service providers supply free
services to publicize Web services and to encourage users to experiment with the technology
Designed to provide an immediate benefit while requiring little commitment on the part of the requester E.g. supply news-headline services and calendar
services for free Some offer free services in exchange for
displaying the provider's brand or logo
Free Charge
Service providers hope that, after successfully using free services, requesters will return and subscribe to more complex, fee-based services
Free services can be appealing, fee-based services usually are more reliable Free services are not governed by SLAs or oth
er QoS assurances
Pay-per-use Model
Involves the smallest commitment from customers Most pay-per-use services require that requesters
purchase a set number of service invocations Requestors prepay for a certain volume of service, Then can decide whether to renew once they exhaust
their prepaid limits If no minimum to the amount of service that customers can
buy, The small usage fees might not justify the cost of billing
Include a mechanism counts and records the number of times each requester
uses the service
Pay-per-use Model
Charge on a sliding scale requesters who buy more service invocations incur a
smaller cost per unit
Requesters use the service before paying Model billed according to the number of times they invoke the
service Such models are riskier for providers
cannot be sure that customers will pay
Flat-fee subscription Model
Service requesters pay a fee for unlimited use of a Web service during a specific time period
Most experts believe that, flat-fee subscription will become the most common way to charge for Web services
The providers can better predict their incomes Can place service providers at a disadvantage if
providers underestimate the amount of service that requesters will use
One-time charge Model
Requesters pay a single fee in exchange for unlimited access to the service for the entire lifetime of the service
For most services, this billing model is impractical However, one-time payment is an ideal charging
mechanism for perishable services, or services that exist for a finite period of time E.g. specific Olympic games, World Series or
presidential campaign
Business of Publishing Web Services
Three main categories Models that support service-to-consumer
(S2C) Web services Models that support service-to-business (S2B)
Web services Models that support service-to-employee
(S2E) Web services
Service-to-Consumer (S2C) Web Services Web services intended for consumption by
individuals, rather than businesses Brokerages list S2C services that provide general
information E.g., news headlines, sports scores or stock quotes.
Web services can simplify the process of communicating content or requested data to users
Many S2C are free and offer only trivial functionality most service creators do not have defined business
models or immediate plans for profitability
Service-to-Consumer (S2C) Web Services Some companies are including Web services as part
of larger offerings, such as travel services or customer-relationship management “Expedia, Inc" maintains an online travel agency (www.
expedia.com) Free services
E.g., Book air travel, car rentals and hotel accommodations Access updated travel information, such as flight status Enable travelers to integrate the latest travel information int
o their personal calendar applications Differentiate itself from competitors in the online travel
industry
Microsoft's .NET Microsoft's .NET My Services
A set of S2C Web services that stores users' personal information
Username and , password pairs, appointment schedules, travel information and credit-card data
Microsoft's .NET Passport Single Sign-on service (SSO)
stores users' authentication information and enables automatic sign-on at participating Web sites
Each Passport account encompasses four components a Passport Unique Identifier (PUID). a user profile, credential information an optional wallet feature called Express Purchase
Microsoft's .NET Assigns a PUID to each, enabling Passport to distingu
ish among users A user profile is associated with each Passport accou
nt Credential information consists of an email address or
phone number A password containing a minimum of six characters Passport user also selects a four digit security key
A large number of business allow visitors to log into their Web sites via the Passport authentication system
eBay, McAfee.com, Monster.com, Office Depot Critics have raised significant concerns regarding secu
rity and privacy
Service-to-Business (S2B) Web Services Recognizing the advantages of interacting via Web
services, many companies are developing S2B Web services communicate with one another and share data,
regardless of platform simplify existing transaction processes enable the formation of new, more streamlined
relationships among organizations link their databases and applications companies share updated data Etc.
Service-to-Business (S2B) Web Services Currently, most businesses allow only trusted partner
s to access their S2B Web services address a wide range of business communications nee
ds E.g., Dollar Rent A Car Systems (www.dollar.com) dev
eloped a Web service linking its reservation system directly to Southwest Airlines Company's Web site (www.southwest.com)
Purchase plane tickets and rental-car reservations from the same Web page
Communicate with their client businesses
Service-to-Employee (S2E) Web Services Web services specifically designed for use by
employees The services can take many forms
Some S2E Web services help companies deliver information to employees, whereas others simplify interactions among employees
Enable employees with appropriate access rights to use corporate applications and modify files over the Web
Hewitt Associate LLC
A consulting and outsourcing firm that provides human-resources and employee-benefits services to businesses
With more than 250 client companies Manages retirement. plans, healthcare benefits and o
ther services for over 15 millIon employees worldwide
Want to offer employees convenient access to their personal retirement and benefits information retrieve data or change options through customer-servi
ce representatives
Hewitt Associate LLC Hewitt's client companies requested that the firm provide more
direct access to benefit data Wanted the ability to retrieve information regarding 40lk
accounts and health-care policies from their companies' corporate portals, without going through Hewitt's site
Could achieve this by creating custom connections between its computing system and those of its clients The costs and development time involved seemed unreasonable
Instead, using Web services technologies build a platform-independent system all its corporate clients can integrate into corporate portals or
other applications Use IBM's development tools
Hewitt Associate LLC
The portal translates a request to XML Send it in a SOAP envelope over the Internet
Using IBM WebSphere application server unwraps the SOAP envelope and passes the request to Hewitt’s mainframe Translates the request from returns an XML and proce
sses it
The mainframe returns an XML response to the application server (in SOAP envelope )
Transmits it back to the client application
UDDI Registries
UDDI registries are the most commonly known method of discovering Web services provides information about and access to
publicly available Web services conceptually similar to a that of a phone book
companies can search registries by business entity, business service and other categories
Web Services Brokerages
Web sites that list available Web services E.g. www.XMethods.com Can discover Web services
Some also supply value-added services include advanced search capability Service monitoring Service supports
Web Services Networks
Most enterprises that use Web services require more comprehensive, end-to-end support for Web services transactions
Web services networks can provide additional service support Companies that oversee Web services communications by
offering authentication. security, routing. etc. Similar to the package delivery services provided by UPS and
FedEx when two businesses need to exchange products, they employ a
package delivery service to route the package the delivery service guarantees that the package reaches the
appropriate recipient It arrives by a certain time it remains undamaged
Web Services Networks
Organizations will not be comfortable conducting important business via Web services unless the participants can ensure that messages arrive securely, on time and intact
Web Services Networks act as intermediaries between
enterprise Exchange Web services As such the networks provide a variety of services that
address QoS, network reliability, security, metering and billing
If a Web service message must pass through multiple parties, the network can ensure that the message is routed correctly
Web Services Networks