In comments on the complexity of WS-* Ted Neward mentions REST: I think the WS-* guys would agree with you, that simpler messaging systems, like RESTful systems, are easier to develop and maintain. And then transactions: But when you *need* the security and transactions and reliability of the implementations that conform to the WS-* stack, the platforms have to be able to deliver that without requiring you to build it yourself. Transactions and web services are not a good mix. Probably I'm being overly literal in interpreting what Ted is saying (I haven't seen anything like this on his blog). But do keep your TP Monitors to yourselves folks....