Microsoft and IBM united in New York to demonstrate preview code for the next set of Web service protocols designed to enable more complex, secure, cross-company e-business transactions. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, on hand with top IBM software executive Steve Mills, said the forthcoming WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging and WS-Transaction protocols are designed to enable the kind of e-business relationships many dot.com vendors hyped during the late 1990s.

"Web services are important to the foundation of the Internet, enabling e-commerce to become a reality," Gates said during a briefing in New York. "That rich new layer will take Web services to a new level... we hope to see implementation in .Net and WebSphere. At a briefing in New York on Wednesday, Microsoft and IBM together demonstrated early WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging and WS-Transaction protocol code working in the form of a supply chain Web service application among a car dealer, manufacturer and supplier. The Web service application--which replicates the same function as a costly Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transaction of the past--was running on disparate systems--a Windows 2003 Server, a Linux-based WebSphere server from IBM and Linux-based wireless handheld.