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The article looks at how Merrill Lynch implemented Service-Oriented Legacy Architecture, a Web services initiative that reduced their information technology overhead since 2000. The objective of the project, which was headed by the company's vice president Jim Crew, was to build applications that leveraged not just the data but also the applications on the mainframe. Thus, Crew and his team used X4ML and made it part of Merrill Lynch's service-oriented architecture. Since then, the team has helped create Web services using a collection of Internet technologies like XML and SOAP to make operations available to programmers. The programmers then can create new applications in modern environments including Java from Sun Microsystems.

The article features Andrew Nash, chief technology officer at Reactivity. He developed identity and access management technologies, wrote a book on Public Key Infrastructure, and co-authored several security standards. He decided to focus on fresh security challenges better suited to an emerging Web services world. While making the rounds of RSA Security's customers, he discovered XML security startup Reactivity, where he encountered technologists who were working on a plug-and-play appliance that would provide secure access to Web services. He joined the Reactivity team in 2004 to lead the evolution of the current Gateway line, which adds XML routing and acceleration.