title: When to choose webservices?
body: <p>I'd like to give external access to a web application. Several applications on many clients will use this service extensively (hopefully), which will always lead to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete" rel="nofollow">CRUD</a> functions on a database.</p>
  
  <p>Is a webservice always the first choice? Is there any rule of thumb when to choose webservices, sockets, etc?</p>