In this contribution we briefly review the current status of the dipole
models and parton saturation on the basis of results presented at the HERA-LHC
workshops in the years 2006-2008. The problem of foundations of the dipole
models is addressed within the QCD formalism. Some limitations of the models
and open problems are pointed out. Furthermore, we review and compare the
currently used dipole models and summarise the applications to describe various
sets of HERA data. Finally we outline some of the theoretical approaches to the
problem of multiple scattering and saturation.Comment: 9 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the HERA-LHC Workshop,
CERN-DESY, 2006-200