REST vs. WS-*

Joe Gregorio does a good job of explaining why REST is a better alternative to WS-* for most distributed SaaS/Web Service scenarios. His argument is that WS-* is really only suitable within homogeneous environments such as .NET to .NET or Java to Java. REST may lack the comfort blanket of defined standards and tool support within main-stream development IDEs but it brings many other benifits such as platform neutrality, scalability and performance.