Secure Web services took another step toward reality Monday with the introduction of implementation guidelines and progress on standards development. Analysts said that security remains an important barrier to customer adoption of Web services, a set of evolving standards for sharing information.. . .
Secure Web services took another step toward reality Monday with the introduction of implementation guidelines and progress on standards development. Analysts said that security remains an important barrier to customer adoption of Web services, a set of evolving standards for sharing information. Businesses are using Web services software to link disparate systems internally, but no single standard for security exists.

Security software company Netegrity and several partners have published Web services reference architecture guidelines to help companies make decisions about security and navigate through a wide range of Web services products. The guidelines spell out the capabilities of Web services products from different providers and how their respective products should interact. The document also defines system requirements and provides templates for using Web services applications.

The majority of Web services sales have been for development tools and the server software required to run Web services applications once they are written. But at the same time, dozens of smaller companies have introduced niche products for functions such as authorizing a person's identity, ensuring performance levels, and accelerating system speed with specialized hardware.