WOA or SOA or SO-A-WOT

Thought this was a neat snippet entitled;

WOA wins hand-down over SOA in popularity contest

I replied to the blog but upon reflection felt it was worth while adding a link here to see if anyone is inclined to comment further. I did.

To me, the aged ol' problem with SOA is not that there's anything wrong with it, but more, it really is nothing new. If anything, many people still fail to understand that SOA, like EDI or any "distance" API is really hard to implement and benefit from wide reuse. Heck, even a simple  subroutine in a piece of code on the same system is hard to reuse and more often, is copied and modified. Welcome to "legacy" application support. SOA does not change that. IMHO.

If anyone tries to convince themselves that an SOA is not going to be a legacy problem a few months or years from now, perhaps they need to re-read the techno history books. The problem has never been how hard it is to write re-usable components, the problem always is, the legacy code needed to bring those components together. There's always something else someone wants to do with a component but you can't risk breaking it so you copy it instead. And/or as soon as you break this compatibility (which is  a no-no), your break re-use.

So, is WOA any different? I think so as it really reminds me of the difference between solving the problem for the business or waiting forever for IT. You can have something that works right now or get in the back of the queue (read years) until I (maybe) write perfection. Businesses cannot wait, especially today.

At OpenSpan, we can quite literally turn any business user process into a Service and consume it from anywhere else - RIGHT NOW. It also helps IT, because they get time to do it right whilst not sacrificing what business needs - RIGHT NOW. Is that WOA?

Web 2.0 - "near its dreaded Trough of Disillusionment"

I found this article, it's implications and comments very interesting.  Good News, Bad news for Web 2.0 (Gartner's Hype Cycle). In relation to enterprise Web 2.0 I have a few points of note;

You see, I had Web 2.0 down really as primarily asynchronous communications between browser and something else ( real time events). The Web 1.0 as was, led to mostly uninteresting web pages based on the mainframe synchronous concept (fill in a form, submit and get another form (page) of results). After the mainframe came the unix/dec mid-range systems that supported asynchronous applications - Enter a field, see real-time results/validation/events - All sounds like Web 2.0 to me ;)

I love all asynchronous applications, emulation, client server or web (2.0). The concept of instant event based communications is not only great, it's for the most part, the only right way. I remember building asynchronous web applications in 1998 (using a legacy host to activex as the "broker"). It was really cool and now it's Web 2.0. What's missing now, is how to take enterprise applications to the next level with it.

 Sure with CSS/XML/DHMTL/JSCRIPT/VBSCRIPT (Ajax), you can get a web page (Web 2.0) looking good but it's a real lot of work. Did I hear someone say legacy applications were hard to support - good luck supporting web 2.0!

I can say I saw this coming - because I did - the hype description around web 2.0 is hardly surprising because it's wrapped around old thinking (The Browser legacy). New mash-up vendors are out there, competing to be the next 4GL (power builder) for the web and in my view, whomever REALLY gets that right, will have the killer Web 2.0 IDE on their hands. I can't wait, I feel someone is really really close. Will it be Adobe (Flex) or Microsoft (SilverLight).. Jackbe.. Wavemaker... We shall see. Let the fun begin.

OpenSpan has a new CEO

I am excited to announce the appointed of Eric Musser to CEO of OpenSpan. After an extensive search, we found an awesome candidate who is now at the helm to take OpenSpan to the next level. After 3 - 1/2 years as CEO of OpenSpan with an awesome team by my side, I am excited to now have Eric here. He shares the same passion as myself in the OpenSpan technology, it's customers and partners and the  markets in which we serve. His track record (see Press release to the left) is second to none and there could be no more of a perfect match for his talents here. Welcome Eric.

I am very pleased to announce also, I will be moving into the role of Chief Evangelist, where I can continue to play a major role, well yes, continuing to Evangelize our unique approach to integration. The technology over the last 3 - 1/2 years has progressed beyond even my own expectations. The real problems we are solving right now for large customers, whom have been strangled by integration problems for many years, is personally rewarding to see. There's a clear reason OpenSpan saw 440% plus growth in 2007 and already exceeding that revenue in the first half of 2008 - the product solves real pain points and the product works. That my friends, is proof beyond doubt.

So, I am very excited about the future, as now with Eric on board, I'll have more time to devote to the technology and working with our customers, prospects and partners to share our joint visions for the future of the product and the company. I look forward to blogging more too.