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Summary: The Right Web Services Book
Review: A well-written fast read, with an unusually effective balance between the business and technical perspectives. Doug Kaye has a terrific understanding of technology history, and his discussion around the evolution of Web services provides a fantastic context. If you read only one book on Web services, this is it.
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Summary: Comprehensive yet very easy-to-read
Review: Bounced into this book while searching for background information to bring my sales force up to speed with web services. I must admit that I was at first a little sceptical because Web service is a broad subject (and not always well understood) and I had my doubts about being able to package into a single book. But given that the outline seemed interesting, I decided to give it a chance. I was *VERY* pleasantly surprised! "Loosely-coupled" is great book: It is comprehensive yet easy to read. It provides thoughtful insight on what web services are and how they can help you address complex integration challenges. A lot of people compare Web services to RPC over XML/HTTP. Doug does a great job of describing how web services can be much more: Instead, think of web service as a loosely-coupled, asynchronous backbone where applications can exchange events and documents...It will help you challenge your assumptions regarding application integration and offer new perspectives about how to address this daunting problem. We looked at a number of "Web services" books. This one is definitely in the top three!
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Summary: Buy this book!
Review: If you are an architect or manager and need to understand web services at a strategy and conceptual level then this is the book to purchase. The writing style is top notch. This book should be purchased in conjunction with Developing Web Services by Ramesh Naggapan.
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Summary: Taking website projects to the next level
Review: Loosely Coupled: The Missing Pieces Of Web Services by Doug Kaye (CEO of RDS Strategies, LLC) is a 352-page instructional guide for advanced website developers and programmers to learning more about topics such as transactions, security, reliable asynchronous messaging, and more. While Loosely Coupled does not cover the basics of web services, such as creating source code or XML fragments; it is a first-rate resource for extending the capabilities of a website designer to taking their website projects to the next level.
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Summary: "A Reader" Missed the Point -- This is a Great Book!
Review: The reader who wrote the January 28, 2004 review of this book apparently failed to read the book's description. "Loosely Coupled" purposely avoids any listings or references to specific protocols and standards. It's not a how-to cookbook. Instead this is a true *strategy* book in which the author explains the underlying concepts and issues of web services. Almost all other books out there are of the how-to cookbook variety. They walk through the protocols, demonstrating how to build Web Services. They're valuable, to be sure, but "Loosely Coupled" is a unique book that explains the *problems* that the Web Services are in tended to solve, and how they solve them. It's a "how-to-think" book. If you want cookbook-style code examples, indeed look elsewhere. This book won't meet your needs. But if you want to get the big picture including deployment options and project-management strategies, this really is the best book I've found so far. The author is coming at this top-down (i.e., from a management perspective), not bottom-up (from the coder's view), but it's great for readers of a wide range of technical proficiency. OTOH, as "A Reader" says, if you want the best how-to book on Web Services security, Mark O'Neill's book is the best book I've found that deals exclusively with that topic.
Rating:
Summary: "A Reader" Missed the Point -- This is a Great Book!
Review: The reader who wrote the January 28, 2004 review of this book apparently failed to read the book's description. "Loosely Coupled" purposely avoids any listings or references to specific protocols and standards. It's not a how-to cookbook. Instead this is a true *strategy* book in which the author explains the underlying concepts and issues of web services. Almost all other books out there are of the how-to cookbook variety. They walk through the protocols, demonstrating how to build Web Services. They're valuable, to be sure, but "Loosely Coupled" is a unique book that explains the *problems* that the Web Services are in tended to solve, and how they solve them. It's a "how-to-think" book. If you want cookbook-style code examples, indeed look elsewhere. This book won't meet your needs. But if you want to get the big picture including deployment options and project-management strategies, this really is the best book I've found so far. The author is coming at this top-down (i.e., from a management perspective), not bottom-up (from the coder's view), but it's great for readers of a wide range of technical proficiency. OTOH, as "A Reader" says, if you want the best how-to book on Web Services security, Mark O'Neill's book is the best book I've found that deals exclusively with that topic.
Rating: 
Summary: So, who should really read this book?
Review: This book basically explains what was prior to web services and why it was bad. Then it lists advanced features to be addressed in order for web services to work in real life. However, it seems to be totally out of touch with today's reality in which those very issues are being addressed as we speak. When discussing security, trust, and authorizaton, the author takes his time to beat SSL to death, but does not even mention the standards directly addressing end-to-end security and authorization, such as XML-Security, WS-Security, XKMS, SAML etc. Liberty Aliance and Microsoft Passport are mentioned once in a single sentence as technologies that "support single sign-on". Granted, those technologies are still in flux, but, contrary to the editorial review, they do NOT change on the month-to-month basis, but are there to stay. They are backed up by the industry and have several commercial and open-source implementations. Without the knowledge of at least those buzzwords, one would fail miserably an interview on an architect, developer, manager, or an executive position related to web services. Some abbreviations, like WSN (web services network) appear to be the author's invention not corresponding to anything real out there. Just try to search on the internet, and the closes match would probably be "Western Society of Naturalists" or "Wedding Services Network". Some of the author's opinions seem to come from nowhere, not being backed up by any references. For instance, his view of XML firewall that may, among other things, do billing (p. 208) is a bit strange. It's always been a part of the business logic ... or should firewalls distinguish prefered customers, promotional rates, holiday specials, etc. ... :)? The same applies to XML firewalls doing XML conversion (commonly part of the business logic performed as part of a business workflow). When discussing web services orchestration and transactions, the author does not mention ebXML, BPEL, BTP, WS-Transaction, WS-Coordination, etc. Again, I understand this is a book of concepts, but it should've at least mentioned the most important web services-related buzzwords to keep its readers in touch with reality. To summarize, I just don't see how this book could benefit its targeted audience (developers, arhitects, managers, and IT executives) in making educated decisions about web services technology. I'd recommend reading "Web Services Security" by Mark O'Neill et al just to compare the coverage of security. This book also does not contain a single line of code and explains web security concepts to architects and developers. However, Mark is totaly relevant and up-to-date, cleraly riding the web services wave.
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Summary: An excellent overview for technical decision-makers
Review: This book is extremely helpful for decision-makers who are considering proposals for implementing web services. It is not designed for the architect or programmers but provides an outstanding overview of the key issues. I particularly appreciated the chapter on how to decide what type of project to undertake and assess its complexity and proposed schedule.
I really hope that Mr. Kaye comes out soon with a book with very practical advice on how to use web services to integrate specific COTS such as Oracle Financials, etc. with other applications. The idea of web services sounds great, but as a veteran of two projects now that are using some form of web services, it is not as easy as one would like. Mr. Kaye clearly defines some of the issues. Now lets have a follow-up that helps us with the next phase.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for executives and IT decision makers
Review: This book provides an excellent explanation of why companies should be looking at Web services. It approaches the topic with an honest and straightforward description of the problem space Web services are targeted to address and the characteristics/short comings of those technologies as they exist today and as they are expected to evolve. Perfect for IT decision makers who are evaluating how/where Web services fit in their corporate IT strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for executives and IT decision makers
Review: This book provides an excellent explanation of why companies should be looking at Web services. It approaches the topic with an honest and straightforward description of the problem space Web services are targeted to address and the characteristics/short comings of those technologies as they exist today and as they are expected to evolve. Perfect for IT decision makers who are evaluating how/where Web services fit in their corporate IT strategy.
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