W3C publishes open standard for describing web services policies

Today, the World Wide Web Consortium issued a critical Web standard for extending the features of Web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. Building on the fundamental open Web services standards from W3C, Web Services Policy enables developers to meet requirements for secure transactions, reliable messaging, addressing metadata, and other scenarios, in modular fashion. With Web Services Policy 1.5, SOA developers can enable extensions to a service without disruption or requiring changes to lower level service descriptions. The extensions themselves (consisting of what are called “policy assertions”) are defined by other specifications.

Web Services Policy 1.5 Based on Industry Needs, Experience

Years of customer experience with commercial Web services applications have made clear the need for a modular approach for describing required and optional extensions used by a service. Without this capability, it can be costly to rewrite an entire service whenever application needs change. Web Services Policy 1.5 can reduce this cost. It connects the core Web services standards — SOAP 1.2, WSDL 2.0, and XML Schema — to a growing set of extensions that reflect industry needs and experience.

The W3C Web Services Policy Working Group invited implementers to demonstrate interoperability by evaluating software against the group's test suite. Ten implementations of Web Services Policy 1.5 helped confirm the maturity of the specification. The tests focused on security assertions, one of the most important use cases cited by industry.

Another use case, addressing metadata, is the focus of W3C's WS-Addressing Working Group. The two W3C Working Groups have collaborated to ensure that the Addressing Metadata Specification is aligned with the policy framework.

The W3C Web Services Policy Working Group also secured review from several OASIS Web Services Technical Committees (UDDI, WS-RX, WS-TX, and WS-SX) to ensure that Web Services Policy 1.5 would satisfy their use cases.

Web Services Working Group Brings Together Industry Leaders

The Web Services Policy Working Group brings together leaders from across the software industry including Adobe Systems Inc; Axway Software; BEA Systems, Inc; CA; Fujitsu Limited; IBM; IONA Technologies, Inc.; JBoss Inc.; Layer 7 Technologies; Microsoft Corporation; Nokia; Nortel Networks; Oracle Corporation; SAP AG; Sonic Software; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; webMethods, Inc.; and WSO2.

Many of the group participants have made commitments to support the specification in products, as indicated by the testimonials.

Testimonials for WS-Policy 1.5

These testimonials are in support of W3C issuance of WS-Policy 1.5 as a W3C Recommendation.

In English: Axway Software | BEA Systems | IBM | JBoss/Red Hat | Microsoft Corporation | Nokia | Oracle | Software AG | Sun Microsystems, Inc.

In French: Axway Software

As a leading global provider of collaborative business solutions, Axway is very pleased to see WS-Policy reaching the W3C recommendation status. WS-Policy was the missing link in B2B Web Services; we now have a standard way of describing and processing policies between partners. Our Synchrony 4.1 platform will embed this essential technology.

— Arnaud Meyniel, Web Services Product Manager, Axway Software

BEA Systems is excited by the finalization of the standardization process of W3C-Policy 1.5. A key aspect of Service Oriented Architecture deployments is the description of the services, and WS-Policy can enhance service description and can represent a crucial building block for SOA and other related initiatives such as Service Component Architecture (SCA). BEA Systems was one of the first vendors to offer supported product implementation of WS-Policy, and BEA Systems plans to continue our early adoption strategy of key interoperability initiatives.

— David Orchard, Senior Technical Director, BEA Systems

IBM is pleased to see Web Services Policy 1.5 Framework and Attachments specifications advance to Recommendation status. Customers deploying Web services based solutions with advanced quality of service characteristics (such as security) want to avoid the need for manual exchange of configuration information. The WS-Policy specifications facilitate interaction between producers and consumers of Web services within context of a Quality-of-Service policy. We supported the W3C in this effort by providing the WS-Policy Working Group co-chair, and a member of the Working Group editing team. IBM will offer support for these important standards in market leading products including WebSphere Application Server, Tivoli Federated Identity Manager and WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances.

— Karla Norsworthy, Vice President, Software Standards, IBM

JBoss/Red Hat is pleased to see Web Services leadership continue through the W3C with the announcement of the WS-Policy standard. WS-Policy is a critical component for the evolving Web Services architecture and a standard in this area has been lacking for several years. JBoss is happy to have been associated with the working group and W3C. We are already implementing WS-Policy in our flagship Web Services product line, JBossWS.

— Dr. Mark Little, Director of Standards, JBoss/Red Hat

Microsoft Corporation is pleased to see Web Services Policy 1.5 become a W3C Recommendation. As co-authors and implementers of the original Web Services Policy submission in 2006, Microsoft views the Recommendation as a fundamental part of the metadata foundation for interoperable Web services. Many Web services specifications such as WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-RMPolicy, WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-Addressing Metadata and WS-MTOM Policy use WS-Policy to enable automatic and flexible use of key features such as security, reliability, transaction, addressing and message optimization. Microsoft will continue its support of Web Services Policy by implementing the W3C Recommendation in the next version of its Web services-enabled products, including the forthcoming Windows Communication Foundation 3.5.

— Andrew Layman, Partner Product Unit Manager, Microsoft Corporation

As an active participant in the WS-Policy Working Group, Nokia is pleased to see the WS-Policy Framework and Attachment specifications become W3C Recommendations. We believe it is important to have open standards for obtaining policy information associated with a service and being able to determine policy compatibility between a client and service. To give one example, policy compatibility in security is important to Web Services. WS-Policy is a major step forward and we are supportive of the W3C and its effort to drive interoperable standards for Service Oriented Architecture.

— Frederick Hirsch, Senior Architect, Nokia

Oracle is pleased to see WS-Policy progress to Recommendation status. By allowing interactions between Web components to be tailored at runtime based on declarative specifications, WS-Policy promotes flexibility and enhances compatibility. We congratulate W3C on achieving this important milestone toward the delivery of a complete Web Services Standards stack.

— Don Deutsch, Vice President Standards Strategy and Architecture, Oracle

We are pleased to see the WS-Policy 1.5 Framework and Attachment specifications move forward as W3C Recommendations. WS-Policy is expected to serve as a key component in building the next generation of advanced SOA infrastructure. This will enable our customers to control and govern their enterprise-wide SOA landscapes more effectively. We are pleased to have served as the editor and as a key contributor to the specification, and we’re equally proud of the leadership role that we’ve taken in demonstrating support for WS-Policy within our leading, policy-based solutions for SOA governance.

— Dr. Peter Kürpick, President and Chief Product Officer, webMethods business line, Software AG

Sun sees the promotion of Web Services Policy 1.5 — Framework and Attachment as W3C Recommendations — an important milestone for the web services community. WS-Policy functions are featured in Sun's open source Metro web services stack. Building on existing policy support, Metro will feature WS-Policy 1.5 functionality to enable interoperability with .NET 3.5. The advancement of these W3C specifications delivers on customer needs, which are key to critical technologies including Metro, Java(TM) Composite Application Platform Suite (CAPS), Open ESB and other Sun offerings.

— Thomas Kincaid, Director Engineering, Application Platforms, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Leader mondial des “Collaborative Business Solutions”, Axway se réjouit que WS-Policy atteigne le statut de recommandation W3C. WS-Policy était le chaînon qui manquait aux services Web en environnement B2B ; nous possédons désormais un standard permettant d'exprimer et de traiter les modalités d'appels entre partenaires. Notre plate-forme Synchrony 4.1 incorporera cette technologie incontournable.

— Arnaud Meyniel, Chef de produit Services Web, Axway Software