Surveying the E-Services technical landscape

Hewlett Packard has presented an E-Service vision for electronic commerce in which a rich array of nimble modular electronic services (e-Services) are accessible by virtually anyone and any device. We survey current efforts to meet the technical challenges presented by E-Services. We discuss what differentiates E-Services from today's applications, and what new requirements these differences present. We summarize the efforts of major vendors who seem to be reaching for the E-Service vision, and then compare and contrast the functionality, characteristics, and limitations of those vendors' products.