Web Services Architect : Articles : The State of Java Web Services "Sun believes that the map for Web Services is split into three phases; Phase 1 is using Web Services within the enterprise for integration between disparate systems, both software and hardware, we should see this happen from now and over the next 18 months. Phase 2 is the implementation of Web Services for integration between enterprises; partner to partner, supply chain management, customer relationship management, etc. That should commence in 18 months. Finally in around three years, we should see loosely federated, secure, end-user systems with fully integrated security models available - mainly because the standards are not in place for this to happen and there are many questions to be answered before we can see whether this part of the Web Services vision will resolve. Perhaps key among these is distributed transactions being handled by standards driven technologies."