Sun Delivers Web Services How-To

By Richard Karpinski

Sun Microsystems this week detailed a new Web services reference implementation that provides a road map for companies wanting to deliver XML-based services on its hardware and application servers.

The Sun One Application Services Reference Architecture provides pre-designed, deployed, tested, tuned, and documented Web services solutions based on the Sun ONE architecture and Sun Fire servers.

Enterprises have been on their own in developing and deploying early Web services. But as this new development technique becomes more mainstream, and Web services protocols gain broader support in tools and on app servers, vendors are beginning to deliver reference implementations, frameworks, and other devices to jump-start development efforts.

The Sun ONE Application Services Reference Architecture focuses on the Sun One Application Server, Sun's Solaris operating system, and Sun hardware including its Sun Fire servers.

Sun has been rolling out road-map documents across its product lines in recent months, including architectures for data warehousing, business intelligence, mail and messaging, and management and operations.