The document compares and contrasts three technologies for remote procedure calls: RPC, RMI, and web services. RPC was introduced in 1976 and provides a simple way to call remote procedures but has disadvantages like complexity and lack of features. RMI was developed later for Java and improved on RPC with object orientation and features like load balancing. Web services emerged in the early 2000s and use open standards like HTTP, XML, and SOAP to enable universal interoperability across platforms and languages.