Microsoft Corporation has made "a number of product and industry announcements at different events dedicated to XML Web Services. In keynote presentations at XML DevCon Spring 2001 in New York City and at Web Services World and the W3C Workshop on Web Services in San Jose, Calif., Microsoft executives debuted a new SOAP Toolkit, announced native SOAP support for the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, invited SOAP developers to an interoperability event, confirmed acceptance of the jointly authored XML key management specification (XKMS) digital certificate specification by the World Wide Web Consortium, and presented a road map for future XML Web Services directions to the W3C Workshop on Web Services. The updated version 2.0 SOAP Toolkit provides full support for SOAP 1.1 and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). With the new Toolkit, developers can build high-performance, commercial-quality XML Web Services or add such capabilities to any existing application that supports the Component Object Model (COM). In addition to the stand-alone Toolkit, Microsoft also announced that Windows XP would have native support for SOAP, simplifying the efforts of developers building XML Web Services on Windows XP and ensuring that customers will be able to utilize such services easily. Just as Windows 2000 was the first operating system with native XML support, Windows XP is expected to be the first in the industry with native SOAP support. Microsoft also announced its sponsorship of several upcoming interoperability events to ensure the highest level of industry compatibility around SOAP 1.1." Microsoft is supporting the XKMS specification, recently acknowledged by W3C as a submission; the specification "helps enterprises and developers use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) digital signatures and encryption with XML Web Services."

From the announcements:

VeriSign, Inc., a leading provider of Internet trust services, Microsoft Corp. and webMethods, Inc. today announced wide industry support of their jointly developed XML key management specification (XKMS), a key enabler to second-generation Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services. Baltimore Technologies, Citigroup, Hewlett-Packard Company, International Business Machines Corp., IONA, PureEdge Solutions, and Reuters Limited joined VeriSign, Microsoft and webMethods in submitting the specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Additional supporters of the XKMS specification include Entrust Technologies, RSA Security and Science Applications International Corporation. The W3C recently acknowledged the submission, which will be presented at the upcoming W3C Web Services Workshop, April 11-12. The XKMS specification makes it easy for enterprises and developers to integrate advanced PKI technologies such as digital signature handling and encryption into e-commerce applications, and also ensures interoperability of varying PKI solutions... XKMS is compatible with the emerging standard for XML digital signatures. Designed to be implemented as a Web service, XKMS is built upon Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). It is anticipated that future versions of the XKMS specification will be compatible with XML encryption and XML protocol.

"XML Web Services provide an open, Internet-native way to integrate different applications," said Dan'l Lewin, vice president of .NET business development at Microsoft. "Microsoft continues to help lead the industry through the open definition of standards as well as great products and tools that enable broad development and deployment for XML Web Services."

"SOAP is the core protocol that lets us integrate XML Web Services over the Internet," said Dave Reed, general manager for XML at Microsoft. "The SOAP Toolkit is another effort by Microsoft to make XML Web Services accessible and easy for any developer."

Microsoft on Web Services: "A Web Service is a unit of application logic providing data and services to other applications. Applications access Web Services via ubiquitous Web protocols and data formats such as HTTP, XML, and SOAP, with no need to worry about how each Web Service is implemented. Web Services combine the best aspects of component-based development and the Web, and are a cornerstone of the Microsoft .NET programming model."