Economic reflections on managing web services using semantics

Abstract

In Web Services Management different approaches are discussed. In this paper we analyse three options for Web Service Management: a) Web Services standards descriptions and tools (WS*), b) Semantic-supported and c) Automatic semantic Web Services Management. For the analysis of the differences we identify a number of use cases and investigate the information required for the management of Web Services. The three discussed options result in varying processes with considerable differences in the work efforts. As they involve different levels of investment which only repay on a number of similar WS- applications the discrimination between them is not straightforward. A number of factors must be included in the analysis. Based on the cost arguments and the actual status of standards we consider Semantic-supported management of Web Services to be the most promising option for near future.