Can I use a WebService Architecture to transfer large datasets ?

[Sanjay]

I have a question whose answer will help me save a lot of time in
investigation and implementation. Becuase we have a mix of platforms
(Windows/Unix etc) in our environment I would like to implement a web
service using XML/SOAP (assuming SOAP is also implemented in other languages
like Perl/Java etc) that returns a large dataset (20 or 30 or even 100 megs)
that the client can save to a file at his end for futher automated
processing. These datasets will be the result of custom querys that these
clients run on my database using the webservice.We are trying to automate
the process of genearation and transfer of custom files between various
enterprise databases. This needs to be web service becuse the client(s)
(that consume this web service) will be written as part of automated jobs
to pull thier files from our database every night. So this web service
needs to run like a custom ftp program between differnt platforms. Now for
small datasets web service is ok I think. But for large datasets my thought
was to implement this web service to generate a custom zipped file
containing the unique data required by each client that can be pulled over
by each client. Is this possible using SOAP/XML ? And is possible for
clients written in non MS languages to take advantage of this technology so
that I dont have to get into the business of writing a custom clients for
all my data customers?
Thoughts anyone?.

Thanks in advance

Sanjay