Web services should achieve “ubiquity” within a few years, says Sun ONE senior director Marty Robbins.
US-based Robbins was in New Zealand this week for the launch of Sun’s Services on Demand model, which has been developed in the Java-based Open Net Environment.
He says ubiquity will follow from growing use of the electronic business XML (ebXML) development language, used by Sun.
ONE is Sun's answer to Microsoft’s .Net technology. Sun claims it is superior because it can operate on existing infrastructure, whereas .Net users may have to buy new equipment to make it work.
“With the mass of development, the mass of innovation and the tools [that] are going to be available, Java makes economic sense. Why not take advantage of what you already have utilised and have it upgraded as opposed to starting from new from the .Net side,” says Robbins.
Services on Demand allows customers to use existing assets and create a portfolio of web-based services, which might be used to help make employees more productive, quicken the supply chain, and boost customer service, Robbins says.
He declines to specify exactly what Sun’s offerings are in concrete terms, but says the company has applied the technology internally, saving it “millions” of dollars and cutting weeks from the supply chain, at the same time as giving suppliers more insight into Sun’s needs.