Whirlwind of Web services work on tap
A dizzying array of specifications being produced this year by standards bodies and other groups will fill glaring security and reliability gaps in nascent Web services technology.

In rapid-fire succession over the next six to eight months, network executives could see up to 30 new protocols emerge designed to advance Web services as a way to support secure and reliable interconnection of transaction-based business applications.

The protocols will help mitigate risk, enforce access and use policies, ensure nonrepudiation and guarantee execution and exception handling by defining authentication, authorization, trust, reliable messaging, transactional integrity and workflow. Standards for XML-based digital signatures and encryption already exist.
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