All indications are that Web Services and SOA as an application platform are an inevitable part of the next generation computing platform. Gartner recently predicted that by 2008 over 60% of enterprises will "use SOA as the guiding principle when creating mission-critical applications and processes."
Many organizations are taking a serious look at SOA because of the native interoperability it fosters, and the huge savings this can result in to meet future integration requirements. That, and the agility it promises to give organizations, so that IT can respond more efficiently to changes in business processes.
If you are considering adopting Web Services into your environment right now, ensure that you and your project team fully understand the technology behind this platform (both open standards and whatever
Java tools you decide to use), and that you create and use design standards as much as possible.
