REDMOND, Wash., SOMERS, N.Y. and SAN JOSE, Calif. - Aug. 9, 2002 -
Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) today
announced the publication of specifications to collectively describe how
to reliably define, create and connect multiple business processes in a
Web services environment, and help organizations coordinate business
processes and transactions within the enterprise and with partners and
customers across heterogeneous systems and within the enterprise.
Announced were the new specifications to address transacted communications
of Web services (WS-Coordination, WS-Transaction) and a new language to
describe business processes (Business Process Execution Language for Web
Services, or BPEL4WS).
A business process describes the flow of tasks, the order in which they
need to be performed, the type of data shared and how other partners are
involved. BPEL4WS allows companies to describe business processes that
include multiple Web services and standardize message exchange internally
and between partners. WS-Coordination and WS-Transaction provide
companies with a reliable and durable way of handling multiple Web
services interactions, regardless of the underlying computing
infrastructure. In addition, they outline how partners can interact with
a collection of Web services and coordinate the outcome of those
corresponding activities.
For example, a travel agency that exposes its business travel processes -
such as hotel, flight or car rental reservation applications - as Web
services can integrate and transact with the business travel processes of
its customers and partners. Using BPEL4WS, WS-Coordination and
WS-Transaction, the travel agency's customer could electronically submit a
travel itinerary to an agent; the agent's system can automatically procure
the appropriate airline, hotel and car reservations from partners to match
the customer request; and the system can then send confirmation of all
reservations back to the customer once the itinerary processing is
complete. In case one of the applications fails, tasks that have already
been completed can be automatically undone.
WS-Coordination
WS-Coordination provides developers with a way to manage the operations
related to a business activity. A business process may involve a number
of Web services working together to provide a common solution. Each
service needs to be able to coordinate its activities with those of the
other services for the process to succeed. Coordination involves the
sequencing of operations in a process to reach an agreement on the overall
outcome of the business process.
WS-Coordination provides the structure under which coordination can take
place. The specification supplies standard mechanisms to create and
register with transaction protocols that coordinate the execution of
distributed operations in a Web services environment.
WS-Coordination will help developers control operations that span
interoperable Web services.
WS-Transaction
WS-Transaction allows businesses to monitor the success or failure of each
specific, coordinated activity in a business process. It provides
businesses with a flexible transaction protocol to help enable consistent
and reliable operations across distributed organizations in a Web services
environment. The specification also allows the business process to react
to faults detected during execution.
WS-Transaction provides for short- and long-running transactions in which
resources cannot be locked for the duration of the business process. In
both cases, WS-Transaction takes advantage of the structure
WS-Coordination provides to enable all participating Web services to end
the business process with a shared understanding of its outcome.
For example, a travel reservation process contains a number of activities
that must be successfully completed, several of which may run
simultaneously, such as airline ticketing, car rental and hotel room
booking. The use of WS-Transaction with WS-Coordination helps ensure that
these tasks, no matter how they are distributed across programming
platforms and companies, all succeed or fail as a unit.
BPEL4WS
BPEL4WS is an XML-based flow language that defines how business processes
interact. This interaction can involve processes contained within or
between enterprises. It allows companies to describe complex business
processes that can span multiple companies, such as order processing, lead
management and claims handling. These business processes can use
partner-provided Web services, and can also be offered as Web services
business process functions internally or to partners in a reliable and
dependable way.
In addition, BPEL4WS helps enable business processes to interoperate
within and between companies that use different underlying technologies.
This will help companies execute the same business processes in the
systems of other vendors, and facilitate message exchange internally and
between partners.
BPEL4WS replaces the existing IBM WSFL and Microsoft® XLANG efforts by
combining and extending the functions of these previous foundation
technologies.
Once the business process and the connections with customers, partners and
internal entities are defined using BPEL4WS, the next step is to
coordinate the various activities that occur within a business process, in
order and at the right time for completion. WS-Coordination and
WS-Transaction complement BPEL4WS by providing a way for companies to
coordinate and integrate a number of distinct Web services and business
processes, consistently and reliably, across a variety of implementation
environments to ensure the right outcome.
Those wanting more information and to view the specifications should visit
the following sites:
· Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/
· IBM: http://www.ibm.com/webservices/
· BEA: http://dev2dev.bea.com/techtrack/standards.jsp
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years
of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM software offers the
widest range of infrastructure software for all types of computing
platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of
e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is
through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com/software/.
About BEA
BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure
software company, providing the enterprise software foundation for 13,000
customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global
500. BEA and its WebLogic® brand are among the most
trusted names in business. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 91
offices in 33 countries and is on the Web at http://www.bea.com.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business
computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services
designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place
and on any device.
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The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information, press only:
Scott Johnston
BEA Systems
E: scott.johnston@bea.com
T: +31 (0) 20 201 8064
Ezra van Tiel
Applied Communications
E: ezra@appliedcom.com
T: +31 (0) 20 531 3738