Web Services Question:

Today's variety of computer platforms, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments shows no signs of diminishing. Heterogeneity is the norm in the IT world, has always been so, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Getting diverse systems to communicate and cooperate is an ongoing challenge for many organizations. Past efforts to create an overall framework for network-oriented program integration, such as DCOM and CORBA, are complex, proprietary, and expensive to implement. Reducing the cost and complexity of integration projects is a driving force behind Web Services standardization and adoption. While current Web Service systems have fewer features
than a system like CORBA, today's Web Services offer more features than developers actually need. Fortunately, the largest software vendors in the world, including- Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and Oracle-are cooperating on the core Web Service standards. 4th Dimension's Web Services features enable developers to quickly and easily publish and subscribe to Web Services.