The internet of services: Global industrialization of information intensive services

Abstract

Web Services have experienced great interest during the last years as they were expected to act as enablers of seamless application-to-application integration both within company boundaries and on a global scale. However, a truly global mesh of interoperable services has not yet become reality due to various reasons. Novel technologies and design principles are now about to emerge which shift the Internet towards a major inflection point: It is envisioned to evolve as a global platform for the retrieval, combination and utilization of interoperable resources. In this article, we contrast the Internet of today and the envisioned Internet of Services along three major categories: Stakeholders, Applications and finally Technology. We conclude with an analysis of the important role this emerging Internet of Services will play as technological enabler of information services industrialization: By reducing different kinds of waste, the Internet of Services acts as enabler of Lean Service Management