Bow Street Software Inc, in the aftermath of Microsoft Corp’s web services announcements earlier this week, says it is now within three months of launching its web services automation system. The software is currently in its beta testing phase. Bow Street, one of three start-ups set up last year by ex Tivoli Systems Inc boss Frank Moss, says its new software, developed over the last 18 months, will enable the mass customization of dynamic business- to-business e-commerce. The post 2000 internet will be one of XML services, it says.
Within 18 months there will be more web services than web pages, said Jack Serfass, co-chairman of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Bow Street. Hundreds of millions of web services will appear from Microsoft, HP, Oracle, IBM, Sun and any other software company hoping to deliver products for the web. Companies will be defined by the services that they offer, not the products that they sell, he said.
Bow Street has already persuaded IBM Corp, Microsoft Corp, Novell Inc, Oracle Corp and the Sun-Netscape Alliance to back its DSML Directory Services Markup Language as the basis for a new standard. DSML is intended to make it easier to use and share directory information in XML-enabled applications, filling up one of the areas where XML has been somewhat weak.
Bow Street claims to be taking the lead in connecting XML web services from multiple sources. The internet is bigger than any one company, and unlike the browser, it’s not just HTML. Different vocabularies of XML will be provided from all major software companies and customers. An open, heterogeneous system is the only answer, it said.
