What are Web Services
                     What are Web Services?
Melissa charm
Writer at smb-trends.com, writes 
content on new SMB trends.
Web Services refers to the application services which is served on 
internet through websites allowing machine to machine interaction. 
It integrates various aspects of web application such as XML 
messaging service (to tag the data), SOAP (transfer the data), WSDL 
(service description) & UDDL (listing service availability). Irrespective 
of OS or programming language, web services allow interaction of 
one program with another like JAVA can interact with perl and 
windows application can talk with UNIX. Web services are updated 
from of Electronic data interchange, and it requires Internet for direct 
application to application interaction.
The main purpose of using web services is to exchange data between 
different software platforms. Its characteristics are defined as
SOAP (simple object access protocol)
SOAP is XML based protocol used for sharing information between 
two or more systems. It is platform and language independent, use as 
a communication protocol and is specifically designed to 
communicate over internet.
WSDL (web services description language)
It is created by Microsoft and IBM meant for information exchange in 
distributed environment. WSDL is also a XML-based language and it 
guides how to access the web services.
Benefits of web services
There are several key benefits of using web services which are helpful 
to organizations of all sizes.
Low cost for communication
Compared to other methods like EDI and B2B, web services save lot 
of time and money as it uses SOAP over HTTP. It acts as an automatic 
dictionary which helps businesses to have correct information about 
other service providers. It increases visibility of your business among 
customers thereby helps in increasing your business revenues.
Interoperability
A web service is virtual platform that allows exchange of application 
data and services among other applications. For example, a web 
application developed in Java or Perl can exchange or talk to web 
service of another web-based platform.
Standardized protocol
Web services is based on standard protocol for communication and 
all four layers uses well defined protocols (service transport, XML 
messaging, service description & service discovery). Standardization 
has many advantages as it reduce the cost due to competition, thus 
increase the quality and provide wide range of choice.
Re-usability
Web services provide flexibility to modify and reprogram of particular 
model of application as per requirement to serve new and different 
services. The component of a web service used in website can be 
used in other services with few changes.
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