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Originally published at Internet.comThis article is brought to you by Apress, publishers of Architecting Web Services.
Web services are a new development paradigm with which you can expose logic and data to partners and customers over the Internet. One reason so many people are excited about Web services is that they can generate collaborations between organizations with minimal communication. This is due mostly to the use of human-readable XML for defining the data transfers during the consumption of the Web service. Vendors are also starting to provide some of the first tools and services that augment this fact by making the build and implementation of rudimentary Web services quick and easy. However, as Web services and the applications that consume them get more complex, you must still put a lot of thought and attention into the design and deployment of your Web services to ensure their success. Making your Web services "easy adopters" will give you a competitive advantage over similar services.
The easier something is to use, the more people are likely to use it. There is no better example of this basic premise than the Internet. While most professionals cannot stand the hand-holding nature of AOL-type Internet service providers (ISPs), there's no disputing that they're the biggest providers because of their ease of use. You pop in a CD, run a program, and you're connected through a graphical, step-by-step process to the Internet. This same approach also helps to keep these ISPs' support costs down, because easier use translates into fewer customer service issues. Of course, this experience must be backed by the usual quality, or their conveniences and ease of use would be pointless. If an ISP started to drop people off, have too many busy signals, or incorrectly bill users, you can bet its user base would decrease drastically...
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