Interoperability and Functionality of WS-* Implementations

Recently, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) has announced to have completed its interoperability standards work. The latest deliverables include the so-called “Basic Security Profile” and the “Reliable Secure Profile.” This gives rise to the question whether or not Web Services adopters can rely on interoperability and functionality of Web Services stacks, in particular in terms of security and reliability features. To answer this question, the authors thoroughly analyze two important Web Services stacks for interoperability of WS-Security and WS-ReliableMessaging features. Their analysis shows that security and reliability features are far from being implemented in an interoperable manner. Additionally, they reveal that some of those interoperability problems are not even covered by WS-I profiles and therefore conclude that WS-I’s work has not yet resulted in Web Services interoperability. Finally, the authors investigate support for the so-called “Secure WS-ReliableMessaging Scenario” in order to find out whether WS-* adopters can at least rely on the availability of real-world functionality in homogeneous environments.