Review: StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace

StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace, pricing varies
StrikeIron, Inc.
Durham, North Carolina
(919) 405-7010
http://www.strikeiron.com/

So you've written a great Web Service that uses industry-standard XML protocols to deliver useful business information. You know that your Web Service could save small businesses time and money, and they'd be happy to pay you for the use of your proprietary data. Now what? Well, before you start trying to figure out how to set up your own authentication and billing and micropayments superstructure on top of your Web Service, check out StrikeIron. With this week's launch of the Web Services Marketplace, they're offering self-service publishing for Web Services developers. By filling out a few pages of online forms and choosing your own billing structure, you can tie into their existing infrastructure for commercializing Web Services. Not only does this make your work available to those with StrikeIron accounts, it makes it available through various ISVs and integration partners who leverage StrikeIron's platform transparently. For instance, it's possible for a SalesForce.com customer to use one of the existing StrikeIron Web Services to clean a list of contact addresses - without even knowing that StrikeIron is doing the work.

Of course, nothing comes for free. Whatever level of pricing you set (typically this will be a sliding scale, with some level of free trial and then monthly pricing levels based on the number of hits per month to the Web Service), StrikeIron takes 30% off the top for maintaining the plumbing. But if you're a developer, it probably makes sense to concentrate your own efforts on developing functionality, rather than worrying about the commercial end of things. You have to ask yourself whether your time is better spent developing another Web Service or figuring out how to manage micropayments and usage tracking - or whether you could even set up the sort of ISV network that StrikeIron has spent a couple of years building.

If you'd like to see what's already there, it only takes a couple of minutes to sign up for a free account and see the menu of business-related Web Services that StrikeIron offers. This encompasses things like address verification, sales tax rates, do not call lists, Dun & Bradstreet info, and lots more. You can also sign up for a free publisher account while you're there, download the Publisher Guide, and get started immediately (well, assuming you have any Web Service that you want to resell, anyhow). The whole process is surprisingly easy, and the site is well-designed and responsive. If you want to see some general purpose Web Services in action, drop on by.

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Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics.

Published September 13, 2005