Get Ready for HailStorm
Microsoft’s HailStorm initiative stands squarely in the middle of the Web Services movement, forming the building blocks for future Web-enabled applications.
by Jon Rauschenberger

Web Services are about to change the way you think about the Internet. Until now, most developers have viewed the Web as a mechanism to deliver an application’s interface or user experience. Web Services are poised to change the way you architect and build all applications fundamentally—regardless of how they’re deployed—by transforming the Web from a presentation delivery mechanism to a programming tool.

Microsoft has announced several initiatives that will place it squarely in the forefront of the Web Services movement. Earlier this year, it unveiled a major initiative, code-named HailStorm, to build and deploy a series of Web Services that will serve as the building blocks for a new generation of Web-enabled applications. Few details of what HailStorm will ultimately look like are available, but Microsoft has released enough information to provide a good idea of what these services will do and how they might be used.

HailStorm will consist of 14 services initially (see Table 1). Users won’t interact with these services directly, but will use Web sites, applications, and devices that have been built using HailStorm services (see Figure 1). Developers will build applications using the HailStorm services much as they would use SQL Server’s data access services or Exchange Server’s e-mail capabilities.

Look at the myContacts service to understand HailStorm better. This service will provide address-book functionality that allows users to enter and retrieve contact information for their friends, family, or work associates. Web sites or applications access myContacts on the user’s behalf using a secure Web Service interface. The contact information resides on the HailStorm servers, but the user owns the data and controls which Web sites or applications can access it.

Microsoft will probably incorporate myContacts into Hotmail. If so, users would update and retrieve addresses using the Hotmail Web site as they do today, but Hotmail would store the address information in myContacts using a Web Service exposed by myContacts.