Web Services Wave - Major hurdles must be overcome, but the time is right for close evaluation. "Until now, and for the near future at least, Web services are more hype than substance...(however) expect legions of Web services advocates to crop up soon, and stay away from those who aren't pledging unswerving dedication to the World Wide Web Consortium's XML and SOAP standards work.

Web services are the great leveler of heterogeneous networks, a universal communicator technology for IT."

The buzz about web services is beginning to remind me of the mid-90s when browsers were gaining momentum in the press and on people's PCs. The good news is that, as with the former trend, web services are poised to achieve the same ubiquity and market appeal, translating into more opportunities for developers, service providers, and users alike.