Web services are something of a paradox. At a time when networkers are increasingly concerned about security, the entire computer industry is pushing toward the Extensible Markup Language (XML), a way to encode information so that it can easily be understood by anyone with a text editor. What's more, vendors are suggesting that network managers use XML to make their internal databases accessible from outside the firewall, and even to run executable code found on the public Internet.

By Andy Dornan at Network Magazine.

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