The extraordinary growth of the World Wide Web has been fueled by the ability it gives authors to easily and cheaply distribute electronic documents to an international audience. As Web documents have become larger and more complex, however, Web content providers have begun to experience the limitations of a medium that does not provide the extensibility, structure, and data checking needed for large-scale commercial publishing. The ability of Java applets to embed powerful data manipulation capabilities in Web clients makes even clearer the limitations of current methods for the transmittal of document data.
"Web Services is the clarion call of the computer software industry at present. How should we understand the term? Because of the diversity of interpretation in the industry, the easiest way is to be general and assert that Web Services means XML in motion. If the network is the computer, Web Services comprise the software that runs on it."
Sun ONE 白皮書
Sun為支持互操作智能Web服務，定義了一種開放式軟件構架。SunTM Open Net Environment(開放式網絡環境，即Sun ONE)軟件體系結構，旨在解決諸如隱私、安全和身份等重要問題，定義支持諸如客戶機設備類型和用戶位置等用戶情況的慣例和常規。它支持可以跨越許多網絡系統，其中包括傳統Web、無線Web和家庭網絡。該體系結構的宗旨是要保證使用任何工具，開發智能Web服務，使之運行于任何平臺，可以無縫地實現互操作。
