In-Depth
Relief from an OASIS
So you’ve accumulated all these handy new Web services, and now it’s
time to blend them into a business process. You guessed it, there’s a
standard for Web services orchestration, too.
Business Process Execution Language from OASIS provides a standard definition
for the collaboration of multiple Web services in a larger business process,
including activities like order processing or customer credit-rating systems.
BPEL allows Web services to join together dynamically into a cohesive workflow.
The promise of BPEL is as an alternative to custom protocols that traditionally
created these process relationships but came with all of the integration hassles
associated with proprietary solutions.
Partly because of its acceptance by major players in the Web services market,
including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, industry observers believe BPEL is
well on its way to becoming the prime standard for describing services-based
business processes.
Back to feature: Web Services:
Standards Breed Like Crazy...
About the Author
Alan Joch, a business and technology writer based in New England, can be reached at [email protected].