Referred to by some as the fourth wave of computing, Web services intend to standardize the way business applications communicate with each other, whether they are within an enterprise or communicating with external partners, customers, and suppliers. In this article we explore the key standards behind Web services, as well as the various tools and technologies that the upcoming Microsoft .NET provides for developing and deploying dynamic Web services. What is a Web Service? I like MSDN's (Microsoft Developer Network) definition of a Web service. A Web service is a unit of application logic providing data and services to other applications. Applications access Web services via ubiquitous Web protocols and data formats, such as HTTP, XML, and SOAP, with no need to worry about how each Web service is implemented.