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by Peter Thiruselvam
/ iEntry Staff Editor
Dot Net is Microsoft's plan for the next-generation
Internet and Web strategy. It is not a new operating
system like Windows2000, but rather a new infrastructure
in which web and other database servers communicate
with each other using various software to fulfill Web-based
services.
What is .Net
Mr. Robert Hess, Group Manager for Microsoft's Platform
Strategy Group, said during an interview exploring how
Web services can be used in a company's strategy:
"Imagine that you're wanting to cook a big dinner and
you go to the grocery store and you buy the different
products that were manufactured by different companies
and stick them in your shopping cart. Your own abilities
as a cook will determine whether you are getting raw
vegetables, or whether you're getting pre-cooked vegetables,
or whether you're buying salad in a bag; whether you're
buying mayonnaise in a jar or whether you're buying
the eggs and the oil separately and mixing it yourself.
You can choose how you combine these different ingredients
together.
In the same fashion, Web services can be designed in
such a way that you as the constructor, the person that
has the big vision of what your final goal is, can go
out and shop for Web Services—find a credit card authorization
function, a merchant billing function, a local time
converter function. All these different functions that
are being supplied by other people, but you bring them
together, you combine them with a little bit of loving
code of your own that you write, and out pops a brand
new functionality that maybe someone else had never
even thought of before."
click
here
Success Stories of .Net
 Companies
are Already Implementing .Net
The idea is fantastic, revolutionary and has tremendous
possibilities---but will it become a reality and what
are the ramifications that it will have on e-commerce?
. NET XML Web services have already been implemented
in several scenarios. The most popular has to be Dollar-Rent-A-Car's
.Net services which programmers implemented and tested
in two weeks time. Dollar's .Net services can now smoothly
communicate their reservation information and other
data in their VMS-based server with their airline partners'
UNIX-based servers. Although this is not anything new,
what stands out is that since .NET is a framework it
can now have other partners' services also smoothly
and easily plugged in. Continental Airlines NASDAQ.com
and MSNBC.com are just some of the major companies using
.NET to make their companies communication processes
much smoother. To read more about the seventeen case
studies of companies implementing .NET, check.
Governments Consider Implementing .Net
.NET has been taken seriously not only by the corporations
named in the case study, but also governments of countries.
There has been talk that the governments of both the
United Kingdom and The Untied States are seriously considering
using .Net or a part of it for their respective government
computing strategies.. See for the UK, "Why
Web Services Will Gradually Dominate e-Business Development",
and for the US consideration of .NET’S Passport service,
check "US
govt evaluates Microsoft Passport for Services."
On a side note, it should be mentioned that when it
was reported that the White House technology Czar, Mark
Forman, was considering using the Passport service (an
intrinsic part of Web services as it holds the data
of individuals and their preferences), he caught a lot
of heat from privacy organizations. His decision to
consider using Passport was because, as GartnerGroup
found out, the number of registered Passport users jumped
from seven million people in August 2001 to fourteen
million people in February 2002. However, Gartner found
out that 84% of them registered because the were forced
to in order to use other Microsoft applications such
as Microsoft’s’ Messenger, Hotmail and XP. In lieu of
this, the decision is still up in the air.
Last August, Newsbytes vilified Passport in a story
called "Microsoft
Passport Security Flaws Now On The Radar". In the
article, AT&T Labs researchers said, "Microsoft's Passport
service, in use today at dozens of online merchants,
carries significant risks to users. Newsbytes said that
the researchers concluded "that until fundamental changes
are made to the single sign-in and electronic wallet
service, ‘efforts such as Passport must be viewed with
suspicion.’"
To prevent the security holes, Microsoft struck a deal
with Versign to provide more security features for .NET,
namely the authentication procedure of the Passport
program.
However, the 17 companies used in the case study mentioned
above reflect that they are using .NET to streamline
their business practices and save quite a bit of money.
Additionally, I spoke with Jens Jorgensen, the man who
headed up the IT team to convert Ubid.com to a Web services
operation and he really liked using .NET to make the
transformation. I will write a article on the interview
with Jens in the near future.
Colleges and .Net
Other than the successful case studies, there are colleges
and universities which seem to really embrace .Net and
are working earnestly to build the infrastructure. The
DePaul University Center for Urban Education is using
.Net to "create a portal communication system for the
Center and educators to speed data entry and report
generation and provide automated data analysis." Furthermore,
Texas A&M University and the New Jersey Institute of
Technology, uses Web services for student enrollment,
and scheduling services. Additionally, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania
are also working with Web services.
Has Support with Excellent Magazine Tutorials
In order to help with the development of .Net, there
are a couple really good magazines available, namely
.net Magazine and XML & Web Services. If you are interested
in developing or implementing .Net XML Web services
for your company, you should familiarize yourself with
these two magazines. For example, in the April 2002
issue of .net Magazine, there were two excellent features
articles on security; one on globalizing your company
with .Net and one as a case study of how it is being
implemented.
Although, there is a selective adoption of .Net by these
institutions, the fact remains that there are problems
with .Net and Web services in general.
Major Problems of .Net
 Microsoft
is Forced To Make Changes To The Heart of .Net
One of the major problems is the centerpiece of the
.NET strategy --.NET's My Services -- has been shelved.
My Services was originally called Hailstorm. Hailstorm
received tremendous attention when it was first announced.
There was even talk of huge changes in the way we view
technology. According to Microsoft's My Services website,
".NET My Services authenticates users, provides the
ability to send alerts, and stores personal information,
including contacts, e-mail, calendar, profile, lists,
electronic wallet, physical location, document stores,
application settings, favorite Web sites, devices owned,
and preferences for receiving alerts."
The problem with this is that while Microsoft thought
that people would voluntarily give this information
in exchange for the convenience of not filling out website
forms; in reality, people didn’t trust Microsoft with
their personal information. Additionally, corporate
entities such as financial industries and others did
not want a third party (Microsoft) to hold their clients
sensitive information. This was based on alienating
their customers as well as Microsoft’s well reported
security holes.
To resolve the problem, Microsoft has given in to having
their server as a central repository to hold all the
.NET users personal information and is packaging it
so that it will be similar to a standalone software.
Therefore, enterprises and other business entities will
have the latitude to store the information in their
own servers. This means that if you use a company’s
NET services, you will have to depend on the security
of its computer systems. This change in policy from
user information residing on Microsoft’s servers to
each company’s server does deal a major blow for the
initial vision of .NET.
Security Another issue is the security holes in creating
the .NET framework itself. PC Mag reported on Valentines
Day (Feb 14th 2002) in an article titled, ".Net Security
Flaw Exposed," that "there is a security flaw in Microsoft
Corp.'s new .Net compiler that could lead programmers
to unknowingly include buffer overflows in any code
they write for the new .Net Framework." See here
for further details. Approximately three weeks later,
a hacker named HD Moore, who works as a senior security
analyst for Digital Defense said that .NET is intrinsically
secure and ".Net Framework could nearly eliminate most
of Microsoft's vulnerabilities…[h]owever, the server
software is still too easy to misconfigure, especially
since much of the documentation teaches insecure programming
techniques."Please
see "Hacker says .Net is pretty good". These types
of flaws cannot be good when Microsoft wants people
to use their tools to build a framework through which
a company’s valuable transactional information will
pass Conclusion
Bill Gates wrote in his June 14th 2001, memo to developers
and IT professionals, "How will businesses and their
customers benefit from this[.Net]? Because XML Web services
break down the distinctions between the Internet, standalone
applications and computing devices of every kind, they
enable businesses to collaborate to offer an unprecedented
range of integrated and customized solutions--solutions
that enable their customers to act on information any
time, any place and on any device."
.NET is an innovative idea spawned by the brains of
arguably the most powerful company in the world. However,
their lack of foresight into the the values of people
not wanting their personal information stored by a company
know for security problems has hurt them tremendously.
These problems lead to the conclusion that .NET, and
perhaps on a greater scale, Web services, will not be
the answer for the next generation B2C ecommerce solutions.
However, its ability to provide a framework so that
modules from various partners can be plugged in to work
in concert allow major industries to work together efficiently.
Therefore, while it would be very useful
to use .Net for B2B connections  between
retailers such as Wal-Mart and their suppliers, it would
not be workable in the short-run for B2C.
Resources
US
govt evaluates Microsoft Passport for services
Microsoft
Has Shelved Its Internet 'Persona' Service
MS
pulls the plugs on Hailstorm, pending rethink
MS
to block internet apps by default in .NET
Microsoft
recasts .Net My Services to allow customer control
Why
Web Services Will Gradually Dominate e-Business Development
Microsoft
accuses industry of Web services hype
Microsoft
beefs up .Net security
Hacker
exposes holes in .Net
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